From vcut at bu.edu Mon Nov 2 08:25:18 2009 From: vcut at bu.edu (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:25:18 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CfP for the special Issue on "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" Message-ID: ======================== CALL FOR PAPERS ======================== ---------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer) on "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors John G. Taylor, King's College, London, U.K. (john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk) Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) -------- Scope -------- How is a complex visual scene processed? How is the selection of one particular location in a visual scene accomplished? Does it involve bottom-up, sensory driven cues or top-down world knowledge expectations or both? How is the decision made when to terminate a fixation and move the gaze? How is the decision made where to direct the gaze in order to take the next sample? The goal of the special issue is to advance our understanding of the state-of-the-art on bottom-up and top-down approaches to active visual search and picture scanning. Neurocomputational, computer vision and experimental review papers on perceptual saliency, attention, learning and memory, decision making and gaze control are welcome. The manner in which attention is involved is considered a highly relevant topic to the special issue. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- Submission deadline: April 1, 2010 Review deadline: July 1, 2010 Author notification: July 2, 2010 Author?s response: August 1, 2010 Publication by journal: ~November/December, 2010 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submissions for the Cognitive Computation journal can be found under http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559 Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Computational models of saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning". ------------- Contact ------------- Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Center for Memory and Brain Psychology Department Boston University Boston, MA USA Email: vcut at bu.edu Web: http://people.bu.edu/vcut/ From gertito at gmail.com Mon Nov 2 03:41:18 2009 From: gertito at gmail.com (Gert Lanckriet) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:41:18 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: FINAL Call for contributions: NIPS 2009 Workshop on Understanding Multiple Kernel Learning Methods Message-ID: <861A062F-869F-4F7F-A0D9-8F8119DC8623@gmail.com> ****************************************************************************************************** FINAL Call for contributions - Understanding Multiple Kernel Learning Methods Submission deadline: November 3rd, 2009. http://mkl.ucsd.edu/workshop Workshop at the Twenty-Third Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS 2009), Whistler, BC, Canada, December 11 or 12, 2009. ****************************************************************************************************** DESCRIPTION Multiple kernel learning has been the subject of nearly a decade of research. Designing and integrating kernels has proven to be an appealing approach to address several, challenging real world applications, involving multiple, heterogeneous data sources in computer vision, bioinformatics, audio processing problems, etc. The goal of this workshop is to step back and evaluate the achievements of multiple kernel learning in the past decade, covering a variety of applications. In short, this workshop seeks to understand where and how kernel learning is relevant (with respect to accuracy, interpretability, feature selection, etc.), rather than exploring the latest optimization techniques and extension formulations. More specifically, the workshop envisions to discuss the following two questions: -- 1 -- Kernel learning vs. kernel design: Does kernel learning offer a practical advantage over the manual design of kernels? -- 2 -- Given a set of kernels, what is the optimal way, if any, to combine them (sums, products, learned or non learned, with or without cross-validation)? We are seeking participants interested in presenting their work and relating their experience in the workshop, providing insight on the above two questions. This includes evidence of MKL improving accuracy beyond any existing method based on single kernels (provided with insights as to why there is such improvement), as well as evidence of the opposite (with insights as to why). We welcome presentation of recent results, as well as presentations based on previously published work that shed light on the above questions. If you are interested in participating and contributing a presentation, please send an email to bmcfee at cs.ucsd.edu with an abstract or a summary, by Tuesday November 3rd, 2009. If the presentation is based on previously published work, please include details of such publications. REPOSITORY In conjunction with the workshop, we are establishing an open repository of data sets for use with MKL algorithms. Authors are encouraged to contribute data to the MKL Repository (mkl.ucsd.edu), and use the repository to benchmark new algorithms. ORGANIZERS * Gert Lanckriet (University of California, San Diego), gert at ece.ucsd.edu * Francis Bach (Ecole Normale Superieure/INRIA), francis.bach at ens.fr * Nathan Srebro (Toyota Technological Institute, Chicago), nati at uchicago.edu * Brian McFee (University of California, San Diego), bmcfee at cs.ucsd.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091102/891085b5/attachment-0001.html From wjma at cpu.bcm.edu Mon Nov 2 18:50:32 2009 From: wjma at cpu.bcm.edu (Wei Ji Ma) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 17:50:32 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Program in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine Message-ID: <48071F74CBAD5B46973B3D2B90179BCB044361@stan.hou-ad.hnl.bcm.tmc.edu> PhD Program in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX Applicants with a theoretical/quantitative background particularly welcome! Deadline: January 1 Theory and computation are essential in trying to understand the human brain. Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) has a core group of faculty who incorporate theoretical and computational methods in studies of perception and cognition in health and psychiatric disease. Our Graduate Program in Neuroscience offers students with a strong quantitative and analytical background the opportunity to apply their skills to challenging problems in brain research, while receiving world-class training across the breadth of neuroscience. Engineering, computer science, physics, and mathematics are not traditionally associated with investigating perception and cognition. Yet students from these and related disciplines often possess the skills and mindset necessary to help build theoretical frameworks for experimental data. In our Department of Neuroscience, this can take on many forms, such as advanced analysis of neuroimaging data, computational studies using animal models of sensation and cognition, studying the functional architecture of cortical circuits and how information is processed across populations of neurons, investigating the neural mechanisms of time perception, modeling anomalies of reward processing in psychiatric patients, studying the dynamics of decision-making in groups, or developing Bayesian theories of human perception. The computationally oriented neuroscience laboratories at BCM (Chiu, Eagleman, Gabbiani, King-Casas, LaConte, Ma, Montague, Saggau, Tolias) also conduct human behavioral, neuroimaging or neurophysiological studies, thereby allowing for a direct interplay between theory and experiment. This is aided by state-of-the-art imaging and computing facilities, as well as active collaborations with other neurophysiological laboratories and clinical divisions. Students will acquire the tools and training that will position them for groundbreaking interdisciplinary research after the completion of their program, as well as for many other possible career paths. The graduate program leading to a Ph.D. in neuroscience is designed as a five-year program. In the first year, students complete basic courses that provide them with a strong background in all facets of neuroscience. Concurrently, they familiarize themselves with ongoing research through rotations in the laboratories of Neuroscience faculty of their choice. At the end of the first year, students choose an advisor, enter into the lab full-time, and develop suitable thesis research projects. At this stage, several electives devoted to advanced theoretical and computational topics are available. There is no application fee and our program offers free tuition and a very competitive stipend. Houston is a very attractive city for living (http://kiplinger.com/features/archives/2008/05/2008-best-city-houston.h tml). The deadline for submitting your application is January 1, however, our program may begin considering applications in December, so an early application is suggested. For more information: - Department of Neuroscience: http://neuro.bcm.edu - Neuroscience Graduate Program: http://neuro.bcm.edu/think or contact Dr. Mariella DeBiasi, Director of Graduate Studies, at debiasi at bcm.edu. - Computational Psychiatry Unit: http://cpu.bcm.edu/labs.html - Gulf Coast Consortium for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience: http://neuro.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu/?sct=emp_tcn -- Wei Ji (Whee Ky) Ma, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Neuroscience Baylor College of Medicine Houston, TX 77030 Phone: 1-713-798-8407 http://neuro.bcm.edu/malab -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091102/c158bb9c/attachment.html From harel.shouval at uth.tmc.edu Tue Nov 3 14:16:10 2009 From: harel.shouval at uth.tmc.edu (Harel Shouval) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:16:10 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Track at UT in Houston Message-ID: <3693DC5B-E5F5-4EF5-9B0B-8AA1B853ECE8@uth.tmc.edu> Theoretical and Computational Track at the Neuroscience Program, The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston http://Neurograd.org The mammalian brain is an exceptionally complex organ that poses unique challenges to scientific study. Although the field of neuroscience is multidisciplinary, it is seldom interdisciplinary because it is difficult for individuals to integrate information across different levels of analysis (e.g. from behavioral to molecular). However, a true understanding of the brain will ultimately require such an interdisciplinary approach, and the emerging field of Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience provides this integrated view through the application of mathematical and computational methods to the complex questions of brain science. The goal of the Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience track is to train the next generation of neuroscientists with the broad range of computational and analytical skills that are essential to understand the organization and function of complex neural systems. This specialization is intended for students with backgrounds in neuroscience, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, computer science, engineering, and mathematics. The Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience track allows Neuroscience Program students to concentrate on a focused program of rigorous course work in both the theoretical and experimental aspects of computational neuroscience. Students are encouraged to pursue thesis research that includes both an experimental and a computational component. Students often have two mentors, one being a theorist and the other an experimentalist. The theoretical group at UT GSBS is part of a larger group that includes several universities and medical schools in the Houston area, the Gulf Coast Consortium in theoretical and computational neuroscience (GCC-TCN). Many of the courses offered are combined courses across these institutions, providing a large community of faculty and students that are interested in similar topics. Through the GCC-TCN it is possible to obtain additional training grants, as well as have joint mentors from other universities and disciplines. Theoretical & Computational Neuroscience Track Faculty John H. Byrne, Michael Beauchamp, Wei Chen, Valentin Dragoi, Ruth Heidelberger, Yin Liu, David Marshak, Anne Sereno, Harel Shouval, Neal Waxham For more information The Neuroscience program: http://Neurograd.org GCC-TCN: http://Neurotheory.org Or contact Harel Shouval: harel.shouval at uth.tmc.edu Harel Shouval Associate Professor Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy The University of Texas Medical School at Houston http://nba.uth.tmc.edu/resources/faculty/members/shouval.htm http://nba.uth.tmc.edu/homepage/shouval/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091103/5cc73bda/attachment-0001.html From announce at ccnconference.org Tue Nov 3 16:04:41 2009 From: announce at ccnconference.org (ccnc-announce) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:04:41 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: CCNC 2009: REMINDER to register Message-ID: <200911031404.41587.announce@ccnconference.org> ~ CCNC 2009~ The CCNC 2009 planning committee wants to remind everyone that standard registration rates ($175 regular and $75 students) ends THIS Saturday November 7, 2009. After that, registration will increase to $225 ($110 for students). Please try to register as early as possible --- it helps the organizing committee plan a better conference! The committee requests that you PLEASE try to register for the conference by this deadline in order to help us optimally plan the conference and manage our budget. Registration should be done via the conference website at: http://ccnconference.org/page5.html Based on the number of poster submissions, it looks like this year's conference should be very well attended, with lots of very interesting work! Regards, CCNC 2009 Planning Committee ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE www.ccnconference.org To be held in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, MA. CCN CONFERENCE DATES: Wed-Thu November 18 & 19, 2009 All three of our previous meetings have been a great success, two as satellites to Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (2005, 2007) and in 2006 with Psychonomics. Attendance has ranged from 115-250. ____________________________________________________________________________ * DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: CLOSED A limited number of late posters may be accepted on a space available basis. Abstracts can be submitted online via the website: www.ccnconference.org. * Online registration is available at the conference website: www.ccnconference.org. As in past years, there are two categories of submissions: -Poster only -Poster, plus short talk (15 min) to highlight the poster Abstracts should be limited to 250 words. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Reviewing of posters will be inclusive and only to ensure appropriateness to the meeting. Short talks will be selected on the basis of research quality, relevance to conference theme, and expected accessibility in a talk format. Abstracts not selected for short talks will still be accepted as posters as long as they meet appropriateness criteria. * NOTIFICATION OF POSTER ACCEPTANCE: September 7, 2009 * CONTRIBUTED SHORT TALK SELECTION: September 7, 2009 __________________________________________________________________________ Program: * 2009 Keynote Speakers: Neil Burgess, University College London Josh Tenenbaum, MIT * Three symposia, each including a mixture of modelers and non-modelers and focused on a common theme or issue: ** Top-Down Mechanisms of Visual Attention Moderator: Steven Bressler, Florida Atlantic University ** Our Vision for the Word: Modeling Orthographic Processing Moderators: Carol Whitney, University of Maryland, College Park Jonathan Grainger, CNRS, France ** Context, Memory, and the Brain Moderators: Michael Hasselmo, Boston University Ken Norman, Princeton University * Approximately 12 short talks will be chosen featuring selected posters. * Poster sessions * We plan to award a limited number of competitive travel fellowships for students -- look for a notice by late summer. We especially encourage applications from members of underrepresented minorities. * Registration fees: $175 ($75 for students). ____________________________________________________________________________ 2009 Planning Committee: Suzanna Becker, McMaster University Carlos Brody, Princeton University Nathaniel Daw, New York University Michael Hasselmo, Boston University David Noelle, University of California, Merced Ken Norman, Princeton University Maximilian Riesenhuber, Georgetown University Ex officio: Randall O'Reilly, University of Colorado, Boulder Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University Executive Organizer: Thomas Hazy, University of Colorado, Boulder For more information and to sign up for the mailing list visit: www.ccnconference.org From v.steuber at herts.ac.uk Wed Nov 4 07:27:49 2009 From: v.steuber at herts.ac.uk (Volker Steuber) Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:27:49 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Studentships in Computational Neuroscience, Neural Networks and Systems Biology Message-ID: <4AF17345.90809@herts.ac.uk> PhD Studentships in Computational Neuroscience, Neural Networks and Systems Biology Science and Technology Research Institute University of Hertfordshire Applications are invited for PhD studentships in the Biological and Neural Computation Group at the Science and Technology Research Institute at the University of Hertfordshire. Possible projects include: - Applications of Neural Networks and Other Machine Learning Techniques - Associative Memory in Biologically Detailed Models of Neural Networks - Computational Models of Intracellular Signalling in Neurons More details about our research can be found in recent publications: Rothman J, Cathala L, Steuber V, Silver RA (2009). Nature 457, 1015-1018. Moss GP, Sun Y, Prapopoulou M, Davey N, Adams R, Pugh WJ, Brown MB (2009). J Pharm Pharmacol 61, 1147-53. Chen W, Maex R, Adams R, Calcraft L, Steuber V, Davey N (2009). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5495, 42-51. Maex R, Steuber V (2009). Neural Networks 22, 1005-1112. De Schutter E, Steuber V (2009). Neuroscience 162, 816-26. Applicants should have excellent computational and numerical skills and a good first degree in maths, computer science, physics, neuroscience, biology or a related discipline. Previous experience in neuroscience is not required but would be an advantage. Successful candidates will receive a ?13,290 per annum bursary plus the payment of the standard UK student fees. Research in Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire has been recognized as excellent by the latest Research Assessment Exercise, with 55% of the research submitted being rated as world leading or internationally excellent. The Science and Technology Research Institute provides a very stimulating environment, offering a large number of specialized and interdisciplinary seminars as well as general training opportunities. The University of Hertfordshire is located in Hatfield, just north of London. For informal inquiries contact Dr Neil Davey (n.davey at herts.ac.uk) or Dr Volker Steuber (v.steuber at herts.ac.uk). Further information and an application form can be obtained from Mrs Lorraine Nicholls, Research Student Administrator, STRI, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB, Tel: 01707 286083, email: l.nicholls at herts.ac.uk. The short-listing process will begin on 20 November 2009. Interviews will be held in the second week in December. From M.Casey at surrey.ac.uk Wed Nov 4 04:06:08 2009 From: M.Casey at surrey.ac.uk (M.Casey@surrey.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:06:08 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Professor in Computational Intelligence available at the University of Surrey Message-ID: <225B6337E699484095DA8EE02A5063B5C4897A@EVS-EC1-NODE1.surrey.ac.uk> University of Surrey Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Computing Position Available: Professor in Computational Intelligence Post Advertised Since: Friday, October 16, 2009 Closing Date: Friday, November 13, 2009 The University of Surrey offers high-calibre teaching, a world-class research base, a thriving postgraduate community and a high quality of life in a beautiful campus setting. At the same time we have a strong eye for innovation and enterprise and are at the forefront of developments in teaching and research. The Department of Computing is currently seeking an appointment at Professorial level to provide research leadership for the Computational Intelligence activity within the Department, and to develop collaborative and interdisciplinary links within the University and externally. Applications are particularly welcome in the areas of biologically inspired algorithms, image understanding and semantics, classification, bioinformatics, and information extraction. The successful candidate will also be involved in the subsequent recruitment of a Senior Lecturer/Reader to support this post. Further information and contacts can be found at: https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/ From kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Wed Nov 4 11:38:05 2009 From: kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 17:38:05 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD-Positions available at the FACETS-ITN project Message-ID: <22F5B531DED44AC7898947A3394DC480@janina> 11 Ph.D. positions are available in the FACETS-ITN project From Neuroscience to Neuro-Inspired Computing The Marie Curie Training Network FACETS-ITN offers an interdisciplinary training in the field of Neuro-inspired computing. A total of 22 Ph.D. stipends are being offered to excellent young scientists with the goal to obtain a doctoral degree from one of the European research universities involved in the project. In this second call special attention is given to applicants from the fields of electrical engineering, computer science and physics although the other project areas will be considered as well. http://www.facets-project.org/ITN describes the scientific and teaching activities in FACETS-ITN. The Programme involves 15 European Research Universities, Research Centers and Industrial Partners in 6 Countries. The 11 positions in this 2nd call are available at: France: CNRS-INCM Marseille, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis; Germany: Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft FhG IZM Berlin, Honda Research Institute Europe Offenbach/Main, Silicann Technologies Rostock, Technische Universit?t Dresden; Hungary: University of Debrecen; Sweden: Kungliga Tekniska H?gskolan Stockholm Interested applicants are asked to exclusively use the web based system for their applications: https://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/ITN The application deadline is 20 December 2009 -- Dr. Bjoern Kindler Administrative Project Officer of the FACETS Project Tel.: +49 6221 54 9127 Kirchhoff Institut fuer Physik Room 01.108 Im Neuenheimer Feld 227 D-69120 Heidelberg From announce at ccnconference.org Sat Nov 7 21:21:18 2009 From: announce at ccnconference.org (ccnc-announce) Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 19:21:18 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: IMPORTANT NOTICE: CCNC 2009: Registration DEADLINE extended Message-ID: <200911071921.19199.announce@ccnconference.org> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CCNC 2009 registration deadline has been extended until: ~ Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 11:59PM EST ~ Standard registration rates ($175 regular and $75 students) remain in effect until that time. After that, registration will be on site ONLY and rates will increase to $225 ($110 for students). THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR STANDARD RATES! Pre-registering helps the organizing committee optimally plan the conference and manage our budget. Registration should be done via the conference website at: http://ccnconference.org/page5.html Based on the number of registrants so far and the poster submissions (61), this year's conference should be very well attended, with lots of very interesting work! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE www.ccnconference.org To be held in conjunction with the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, MA. CCN CONFERENCE DATES: Wed-Thu November 18 & 19, 2009 All three of our previous meetings have been a great success, two as satellites to Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (2005, 2007) and in 2006 with Psychonomics. Attendance has ranged from 115-250. ____________________________________________________________________________ * DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: Closed A limited number of late posters may be accepted on a space available basis. Abstracts can be submitted online via the website: www.ccnconference.org. * Online registration is available at the conference website: www.ccnconference.org. As in past years, there are two categories of submissions: -Poster only -Poster, plus short talk (15 min) to highlight the poster Abstracts should be limited to 250 words. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Reviewing of posters will be inclusive and only to ensure appropriateness to the meeting. Short talks will be selected on the basis of research quality, relevance to conference theme, and expected accessibility in a talk format. Abstracts not selected for short talks will still be accepted as posters as long as they meet appropriateness criteria. * NOTIFICATION OF POSTER ACCEPTANCE: Done * CONTRIBUTED SHORT TALK SELECTION: Done __________________________________________________________________________ Program: * 2009 Keynote Speakers: Neil Burgess, University College London Josh Tenenbaum, MIT * Three symposia, each including a mixture of modelers and non-modelers and focused on a common theme or issue: ** Top-Down Mechanisms of Visual Attention Moderator: Steven Bressler, Florida Atlantic University ** Our Vision for the Word: Modeling Orthographic Processing Moderators: Carol Whitney, University of Maryland, College Park Jonathan Grainger, CNRS, France ** Context, Memory, and the Brain Moderators: Michael Hasselmo, Boston University Ken Norman, Princeton University * Approximately 12 short talks will be chosen featuring selected posters. * Poster sessions * We plan to award a limited number of competitive travel fellowships for students -- look for a notice by late summer. We especially encourage applications from members of underrepresented minorities. * Registration fees: $175 ($75 for students). ____________________________________________________________________________ 2009 Planning Committee: Suzanna Becker, McMaster University Carlos Brody, Princeton University Nathaniel Daw, New York University Michael Hasselmo, Boston University David Noelle, University of California, Merced Ken Norman, Princeton University Maximilian Riesenhuber, Georgetown University Ex officio: Randall O'Reilly, University of Colorado, Boulder Jonathan Cohen, Princeton University Executive Organizer: Thomas Hazy, University of Colorado, Boulder For more information and to sign up for the mailing list visit: www.ccnconference.org From h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de Tue Nov 10 16:22:28 2009 From: h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de (Herbert Jaeger) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:22:28 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc and PhD position in machine learning / neurocontrol at Jacobs University Bremen Message-ID: <4AF9D994.2070405@jacobs-university.de> The School of Engineering and Science at Jacobs University Bremen invites applications for - a postdoc research position (4 years) - a PhD position (3 1/2 years) in the area of machine learning / neurocontrol. The positions are funded (subject to a finalization of contract negotiations) by the European FP7 project "Adaptive Modular Architecture for Rich Motor Skills (AMARSi)". The consortium comprises ten European research groups from robotics, machine learning, computational neuroscience and behavioral neuroscience, providing a rich context for interdisciplinary research. The expected project start is March 1, 2010, but the positions may start immediately. The AMARSi project investigates complex modular neurocontroller architectures for quadruped and humanoid robots, and strives to unite methods from robot engineering with insights from biological motor control. In the group at Jacobs University, the emphasis is on the design and mathematical analysis of motor control learning architectures based on recurrent neural networks in the spirit of reservoir computing (www.reservoir-computing.org). A bit more detail can be found on the Jacobs University job ad page at http://www.jacobs-university.de/about/jobs/17564/. Much more detail can be obtained by an email inquiry to Herbert Jaeger, who is looking forward to such requests! This opening is open as long as the official job ad at http://www.jacobs-university.de/about/jobs/17564/ remains posted. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Herbert Jaeger Professor for Computational Science Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH Campus Ring 28759 Bremen, Germany Phone (+49) 421 200 3215 Fax (+49) 421 200 49 3215 email h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de http://www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/hjaeger/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Tue Nov 10 11:58:23 2009 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr. Amir Hussain) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:58:23 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Fw: ISNN2010 Call for Papers (June 6-10, 2010, Shanghai, China) Message-ID: Dear all: (With advance apologies for any cross-postings!) Please distribute the Call below to relevant friends and colleagues.. Many thanks, Amir Hussain, PhD University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK Email: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk http://www.springer.com/12559 http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/ ----- Original Message ----- From: isnn2010 at sjtu.edu.cn To: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 4:34 PM Subject: ISNN2010 Cor for Papers (Shanghai, China) CALL FOR PAPERS 7th International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN2010) June 6-10, 2010; Shanghai, China Websites: http://isnn2010.sjtu.edu.cn or http://isnn2010.mae.cuhk.edu.hk Paper submissions: http://isnn2010.sjtu.edu.cn/login.asp The Seventh International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN 2010) will be held in Shanghai,following the successes of previous events. Shanghai is the largest city in China, located in her eastern coast at the outlet of the Yangtze River. Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century. In 2005 Shanghai became the world's busiest cargo port. The city is an emerging tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and Xintiandi, its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower, and its new reputation as a cosmopolitan center of culture and design. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the ??showpiece?? of the world's fastest-growing economy. In addition, Shanghai is the venue of forthcoming World Expo 2010 to take place from May 1 to October 31 (the symposium registration includes one day tour to the World Expo on June 10). ISNN 2010 aims to provide a high-level international forum for scientists, engineers, and educators to present the state of the art of neural network research and applications in related fields. The symposium will feature plenary speeches given by world renowned scholars, regular sessions with broad coverage, and special sessions focusing on popular topics. Prospective authors are invited to contribute high-quality papers to ISNN 2010. In addition, proposals for special sessions within the technical scopes of the symposium are solicited. Special sessions, to be organized by internationally recognized experts, aim to bring togetherresearchers in special focused topics. Papers submitted for special sessions are to be peer-reviewed with the same criteria used for the contributed papers. Researchers interested in organizing special sessions are invited to submit formal proposals to ISNN 2010. A special session proposal should include the session title, a brief description of the scope and motivation, names, contact information and brief biographical information on the organizers. Authors are invited to submit full-length papers (10 pages maximum) by the submission deadline through the online submission system. Potential organizers are also invited to enlist five or more papers with cohesive topics to form special sessions. The submission of a paper implies that the paper is original and has not been submitted under review or copyright-protected elsewhere andwill be presented by an author if accepted. All submitted papers will be refereed by experts in the field based on the criteria of originality, significance, quality, and clarity. The authors of accepted papers will have an opportunity to revise their papers and take consideration of the referees' comments and suggestions. The ISNN 2010 proceedings will be published by Springer in its series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (EI) and Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing (ISTP). Selected good papers will be included in special issues of several journals such as Neurocomputing, Neural Computation and Applications, Cognitive Neurodynamics, Cognitive Computation, and Mathematics and Computers in Simulation. In addition The International Neural Network Society (INNS) will offer two best student paper awards (US$250 each with one-year INNS membership). ************************************************ TOPIC AREAS ************************************************ 1. Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Spiking neurons Visual and auditory cortex Neural encoding and decoding Plasticity and adaptation Brain imaging Learning and memory Inference and reasoning Perception, emotion and development Attractor and associative memory Neurodynamics and complex systems 2. Models, Methods and Inference Stability and convergence analysis Neural network models Supervised learning Unsupervised learning Embeddings and manifold learning Active learning Statistical and informationtheoretic methods Kernel methods and support vector machines Mixture models Graphical and causal models Bayesian networks Topic models Gaussian processes Model selection Matrix/tensor analysis Structured and relational data Clustering 3. Vision and Auditory Modelling Visual perception and modelling Visual selective attention Statistical and pattern recognition Visual coding and representation Object recognition Motion and tracking Natural scene analysis Auditory perception and modelling Source separation Speech recognition and speech synthesis Speaker identification Audio and speech retrieval Music modelling and analysis 4. Control, Robotics and Hardware Neuromorphic hardware and implementation Embedded neural networks Fuzzy neural networks Cognitive robotics Developmental robotics Multi-agent systems and game theory Reinforcement learning Planning and decision making Action and motor control Visuomotor control 5. Novel Approaches and Applications Brain-like systems Adaptive intelligent systems Brain-computer interfaces Granular computing Hybrid intelligent systems Neuroinformatics and neuroengineering Bioinformatics Information retrieval Data mining and knowledge discovery Natural language processing ************************************************ IMPORTANT DATES ************************************************ Full paper submission deadline: December 1, 2009 Notification of acceptance: January 1, 2010 Camera-ready copy and author registration: February 1, 2010 For inquiries, please contact the secretariat at isnn2010 at sjtu.edu.cn ---Dr. Amir Hussain, PhDReader in Computing ScienceEditor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation journal (Springer, USA)Chair, IEEE UK & RI Chapter: Industry Applications SocietyUniversity Director: Muscat Franchise ProgrammeUniversity of Stirling, Scotland, UKE-mail: ahu at cs.stir.ac.ukhttp://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/www.springer.com/12559-- -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091110/e93998eb/attachment.html From d.polani at herts.ac.uk Wed Nov 11 15:16:50 2009 From: d.polani at herts.ac.uk (Daniel Polani) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:16:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Research Studentship: Information-Driven Self-Organization of Collectives Message-ID: <19195.7090.496767.641380@perm.feis.herts.ac.uk> RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP -------------------- University of Hertfordshire, UK Science and Technology Research Institute Applications are invited from candidates for a PhD studentship on INFORMATION-DRIVEN SELF-ORGANIZATION OF COLLECTIVES Contact for informal inquiries: Dr. Daniel Polani (E-mail: d.polani at herts.ac.uk) PROJECT AND REQUIREMENTS: ------------------------- Self-organization of complex adaptive systems is a topic that enjoys a significant interest in the neural computation and machine learning community. Recently, information-theoretic methods have increasingly proven successful in gaining a principled description and understanding of such phenomena. This studentship will aim at developing systematic methods to study and direct the self-organization of collectives of simple adaptive units and groups thereof, based on principles from information theory. Depending on the candidate's interest and expertise, this may involve, but is not limited to the study of adaptation and learning algorithms, developmental mechanisms (e.g. for architecture generation), unsupervised optimization and adaptation of inter-unit communication and concept transfer, and/or the development of efficient approximation techniques and algorithms for the implementation of the adaptation/learning rules. The prospective candidates should have a keen interest in contributing to a rapidly expanding and promising research area which uses information theory to study and develop adaptive and self-organizing systems in a systematic fashion. For this, they should have a strong background in Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics or another relevant computational discipline. In particular, they should demonstrate very strong programming skills in one or more major computer languages. A strong mathematical/numerical background would be desirable, ideally including probability theory and neural network/statistical machine learning techniques. STUDENTSHIP INFORMATION ----------------------- Successful candidates may be eligible for a research studentship award from the University (equivalent to ?13,290 per annum bursary plus the payment of the standard UK student fees). The envisaged research will take place in the vibrant and enthusiastic research environment of the Science and Technology Research Institute as a part of the Adaptive Systems Research Group in the School of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire. Research in Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire has been recognized as excellent by the latest Research Assessment Exercise, with 55% of the research submitted being rated as world leading or internationally excellent. The university is located in Hatfield, less than 25 minutes by train from London Kings Cross and with convenient access to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow airports and not far from the historic town of St. Albans. CONTACT AND APPLICATION ----------------------- Contact for informal inquiries on the research topic: Dr. Daniel Polani (E-mail: d.polani at herts.ac.uk) For further information on the application process and an application form, contact Mrs Lorraine Nicholls Research Student Administrator STRI, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences University of Hertfordshire College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB, UK. Tel: 01707 286083 Fax: 01707 284185 or email: L.Nicholls at herts.ac.uk The short-listing process will begin on 20 November 2009. Interviews will be held in the second week in December. From brody at princeton.edu Wed Nov 11 17:28:12 2009 From: brody at princeton.edu (Carlos Brody) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:28:12 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Princeton Message-ID: <34CC0422-EFA0-40C6-A6A8-4F72161BD009@princeton.edu> Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Princeton University : Application deadline Dec 1. Dear Colleagues, We'll be grateful if you get a chance to forward this email to any interested students, or post the attached brochure, announcing the Ph.D. program in Neuroscience ( http://neuroscience.princeton.edu/ PhD ) within the Princeton Neuroscience Institute ( http://neuroscience.princeton.edu ). Fall 2010 will see the second generation of students enrolling in this relatively new Ph.D. program. Nine spectacular Ph.D. students started with us in 2009, and we are again seeking the most highly motivated and creative students. Innovative coursework. A key component of our Ph.D. is year-long core course, taken in the first year and inspired by Woods Hole-style advanced courses. Students in this core course learn through a combination of lectures and first-hand experimental experience using modern, advanced methods. All students, regardless of previous experience, perform their own experiments. From single neurons and patch clamp, to ChR expression and activation, to in vivo electrophysiology in behaving animals, to computational modeling, to human neurophysiology and functional MRI, this course guides and teaches students about the brain as they learn to design, perform, analyze, and critique their own experiments. Quantitative and Computational Neuroscience track. We strongly encourage students with training in quantitative fields such as physics, mathematics, computer science, or engineering to apply to our PhD program. Research in quantitative approaches to the Life Sciences is particularly strong at Princeton University, including molecular biology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology. A Quantitative and Computational Neuroscience (QCN) track exists within our neuroscience Ph.D. It teaches students with a quantitative background about neuroscience problems to which they can apply their quantitative skills. The QCN track also serves students with a biology background who wish to acquire further training in quantitative tools for the biological sciences. Please visit us at http://neuroscience.princeton.edu/PhD . Faculty and research interests. Michael Berry : Neural computation in the retina William Bialek : Interface between physics and biology Matthew Botvinick : Neural foundations of human behavior Lisa Boulanger : Neuronal functions of immune molecules Carlos Brody : Quantitative and behavioral neurophysiology Jonathan Cohen : Neural bases of cognitive control Jonathan Eggenschwiler : Mouse neural development Lynn Enquist : Neurovirology Liz Gavis : Neural development in Drosophila Alan Gelperin : Learning, memory and olfaction Asif Ghazanfar : Neurobiology of primate social agents Elizabeth Gould : Neurogenesis and hippocampal function Michael Graziano : Sensorimotor integration Charles Gross : Functions of the cerebral cortex in behavior Uri Hasson : Temporal scales of neural processing Bartley Hoebel : Behavioral neuroscience Philip Holmes : Mathematical modeling Barry Jacobs : Brain monoamine neurotransmitters Sabine Kastner : Neural mechanisms for visual perception Mala Murthy : Neurophysiology of perception in Drosophila Coleen Murphy : Molecular mechanisms of aging Yael Niv : Reinforcement learning and decision making Ken Norman : Neural bases of episodic memory Daniel Osherson : How does the brain reason? David Tank : Neural circuit dynamics Samuel Wang : Dynamics and learning in neural circuits yours Carlos Brody ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Carlos Brody (609) 258-7645 brody at princeton.edu Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Princeton University Director of Graduate Studies Neuroscience Program Princeton Neurosci. Inst. & Dept. of Molecular Biology 316 Schultz Lab, Washington Rd, Princeton NJ 08544 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091111/c29133b8/attachment-0002.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Princeton Neuroscience Insitute PhD program.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 478931 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091111/c29133b8/PrincetonNeuroscienceInsitutePhDprogram-0001.pdf -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091111/c29133b8/attachment-0003.html From d.mandic at imperial.ac.uk Wed Nov 11 15:05:40 2009 From: d.mandic at imperial.ac.uk (Danilo Mandic) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:05:40 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Book announcement: "Complex Valued Nonlinear Adaptive Filters: Noncircularity, Widely Linear and Neural Models", by D. Mandic and V. Goh Message-ID: <4AFB1914.3000600@imperial.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, people dealing with phase/asymmetry/synchrony related research in computational neuroscience may find this book very useful. The book is supported by Matlab code and datasources. "Complex Valued Nonlinear Adaptive Filters: Noncircularity, Widely Linear and Neural Models", Wiley 2009 by D. Mandic and V. S. L. Goh About the Book: This book was written in response to the growing demand for a text that provides a unified treatment of linear and nonlinear complex valued adaptive filters, and methods for the processing of general complex signals (circular and noncircular). It brings together adaptive filtering algorithms for feedforward (transversal) and feedback architectures and the recent developments in the statistics of complex variable, under the powerful frameworks of CR (Wirtinger) calculus and augmented complex statistics. This offers a number of theoretical performance gains, which is illustrated on both stochastic gradient algorithms, such as the augmented complex least mean square (ACLMS), and those based on Kalman filters. This work is supported by a number of simulations using synthetic and real world data, including the noncircular and intermittent radar and wind signals. Key features: * Provides theoretical and practical justification for converting many apparently real valued signal processing problems into the complex domain; * Offers a unified approach to the design of complex valued adaptive filters and temporal neural networks, based on augmented complex statistics and the duality between the bivariate and complex calculus (CR calculus); * Introduces augmented filtering algorithms based on widely linear models, making them suitable for processing both second order circular (proper) and noncircular (improper) complex signals; * Covers adaptive stepsizes, dynamical range reduction, validity of complex representations, and data driven time?frequency decompositions; * Includes extensive background material in appendices ranging from the theory of complex variables through to fixed point theory. Complex valued signals play a central role in the fields of communications, radar, sonar, array, biomedical and environmental signal processing amongst others. This book will have wide appeal to researchers and practising engineers in these and related disciplines, and can also be used as lecture material for a course on adaptive filters. Brief Table of Contents 1. The Magic of Complex Numbers 2. Why Signal Processing in the Complex Domain? 3. Adaptive Filtering Architectures 4. Complex Nonlinear Activation Functions 5. Elements of CR Calculus 6. Complex Valued Adaptive Filters 7. Adaptive Filters with Feedback 8. Filters with an Adaptive Stepsize 9. Filters with an Adaptive Amplitude of Nonlinearity 10. Data-reusing Algorithms for Complex Valued Adaptive Filters 11. Complex Mappings and M?bius Transformations 12. Augmented Complex Statistics 13. Widely Linear Estimation and Augmented CLMS (ACLMS) 14. Duality Between Complex Valued and Real Valued Filters 15. Widely Linear Filters with Feedback 16. Collaborative Adaptive Filtering 17. Adaptive Filtering Based on EMD 18. Validation of Complex Representations: Is This Worthwhile? More information, Matlab sources, and Amazon link on: http://www.commsp.ee.ic.ac.uk/~mandic/complexbook/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0470066350/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470066350/ From tt at cs.dal.ca Wed Nov 11 19:37:12 2009 From: tt at cs.dal.ca (Thomas Trappenberg) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:37:12 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: New edition of Fundamental of Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <4cd6fb750911111637i4a0d2b0ck49bc4b258afccbd2@mail.gmail.com> Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to announce the publication of the second edition of my book Fundamentals of Computational Neuroscience, which contains major revisions and additions to the first edition. The book now includes MATLAB examples in each chapter and some exercises. I hope that this editon is more suited to introductory courses in theoretical neuroscience. Regards, Thomas Trappenberg http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199568413.do?keyword=trappenberg&sortby=bestMatches *New to this edition* - To aid its use as a textbook, now includes simulation sections with program examples and sample exercises. Additional classroom resources are available on the web site for this book, including the figures in pdf format, example slides, and program versions for two open source alternatives to MATLAB, Octave and SciLab. - Features new and important system-level models, with all chapters revised throughout to take account of developments in the past seven years - Completely redesigned inside, with a clearer more textbook driven design Computational neuroscience is the theoretical study of the brain to uncover the principles and mechanisms that guide the development, organization, information processing, and mental functions of the nervous system. Although not a new area, it is only recently that enough knowledge has been gathered to establish computational neuroscience as a scientific discipline in its own right. Given the complexity of the field, and its increasing importance in progressing our understanding of how the brain works, there has long been a need for an introductory text on what is often assumed to be an impenetrable topic. The new edition of Fundamentals of Computational Neuroscience build on the success and strengths of the first edition. It introduces the theoretical foundations of neuroscience with a focus on the nature of information processing in the brain. The book covers the introduction and motivation of simplified models of neurons that are suitable for exploring information processing in large brain-like networks. Additionally, it introduces several fundamental network architectures and discusses their relevance for information processing in the brain, giving some examples of models of higher-order cognitive functions to demonstrate the advanced insight that can be gained with such studies. *Table of Contents* 1: Introduction *Basic Neurons* 2: Neurons and conductance-based models 3: Simplified neuron and population models 4: Associators and synaptic plasticity *Basic Networks* 5: Cortical organizations and simple networks 6: Feed-forward mapping networks 7: Cortical feature maps and competitive population coding 8: Recurrent associative networks and episodic memory *System-Level Models* 9: Modular networks, motor control, and reinforcement learning 10: The cognitive brain A: Some useful mathematics B: Numerical calculus C: Basic probability theory D: Basic information theory E: A brief introduction to MATLAB -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091111/3010d5d4/attachment.html From nessler at igi.tu-graz.ac.at Thu Nov 12 09:18:43 2009 From: nessler at igi.tu-graz.ac.at (Bernhard Nessler) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:18:43 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: New paper: STDP enables spiking neurons to detect hidden causes of their inputs. Message-ID: <4AFC1943.2070709@igi.tu-graz.ac.at> Dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to a new paper describing a surprising theoretically founded connection between spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) and the high-level mathematical concept of unsupervised learning using expectation maximization (EM). On the basis of this principle one can achieve unsupervised learning results in networks of spiking neurons that were previously unattainable. The paper is available online at http://www.igi.tugraz.at/psfiles/191.pdf B. Nessler, M. Pfeiffer, W. Maass. STDP enables spiking neurons to detect hidden causes of their inputs. In Proc. of NIPS 2009: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, volume 22. MIT Press, 2010. Abstract: The principles by which spiking neurons contribute to the astounding computational power of generic cortical microcircuits, and how spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) of synaptic weights could generate and maintain this computational function, are unknown. We show here that STDP, in conjunction with a stochastic soft winner-take-all (WTA) circuit, induces spiking neurons to generate through their synaptic weights implicit internal models for subclasses (or ?causes?) of the high-dimensional spike patterns of hundreds of pre-synaptic neurons. Hence these neurons will fire after learning whenever the current input best matches their internal model. The resulting computational function of soft WTA circuits, a common network motif of cortical microcircuits, could therefore be a drastic dimensionality reduction of information streams, together with the autonomous creation of internal models for the probability distributions of their input patterns. We show that the autonomous generation and maintenance of this computational function can be explained on the basis of rigorous mathematical principles. In particular, we show that STDP is able to approximate a stochastic online Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for modeling the input data. A corresponding result is shown for Hebbian learning in artificial neural networks. Best regards, Bernhard Nessler -- ========================================================= DI Bernhard Nessler Institute for Theoretical Computer Science Graz University of Technology Inffeldgasse 16b, A-8010 Graz, Austria -------------------------------------------------------- nessler at igi.tugraz.at http://www.igi.tugraz.at/ Tel.: ++43 316 873-5823 Fax: ++43 316 873-5805 ========================================================= From Igor.Aizenberg at tamut.edu Wed Nov 11 19:17:37 2009 From: Igor.Aizenberg at tamut.edu (Igor Aizenberg) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:17:37 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers - Special Session on Complex-Valued Neural Networks at 2010 WCCI/IJCNN Message-ID: <4F8B1B563B7C0946AE0EFCE1CBCCC539C33C73@bullwinkle.tamut.local> Dear colleagues, we are pleased to announce that a Special Session on Complex-Valued Neural Networks will be organized at the 2010 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN-2010), which this time will be a part of 2010 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence. The conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain on July 18-23, 2010. The deadline for paper submission is January 31, 2010. Special sessions organizers: Igor Aizenberg (Texas A&M University-Texarkana, USA) Akira Hirose (University of Tokyo, Japan) Jacek M. Zurada (University of Louisville, USA) Session web page http://www.eagle.tamut.edu/faculty/igor/IJCNN_CVNN_Special_Session_Title .htm The Complex-Valued Neural Networks (CVNNs) is a quickly growing area that attracts more and more researchers. There is a line of the CVNN Special Sessions organized during last years, for example, at ICONIP 2002, Singapore, ICANN/ICONIP 2003, Istanbul, ICONIP 2004, Calcutta, WCCI-IJCNN 2006, Vancouver, "Fuzzy Days 2006", Dortmund, ICANN 2007, Porto, WCCI-IJCNN 2008, Hong Kong, IJCNN 2009, Atlanta. Everywhere these sessions had large audience, which is growing continuously. There were many interesting presentations and very productive discussions. There are several new directions in CVNNs development: from formal generalization of the commonly used algorithms to the complex-valued case that are mathematically beautiful to the use of original complex-valued activation functions that can increase significantly the neuron and network functionality. There are also many interesting applications of CVNNs in pattern recognition and classification, image processing, time series prediction, bioinformatics, robotics, etc. One of the most important characteristics of the CVNNs is the proper treatment of amplitude and phase information, e.g., the treatment of wave-related rotation-related phenomena such as electromagnetism, light waves, quantum waves and oscillatory phenomena. Very interesting among other CVNNs are those networks that are based on neurons with the phase-dependent activation functions. This specific phenomenon makes it possible to increase the single neuron's functionality and to design more flexible and more efficient networks. It is also very interesting to study how the CVNNs can be used in modeling of the biological neural networks. WCCI-IJCNN 2010 in Barcelona will be a very attractive forum, where it will be possible to organize a systematic and comprehensive exchange of ideas in the area, to present the recent research results and to discuss the future trends. We hope that the proposed session will attract not only the potential speakers, but many researches who can join the CVNNs community. We expect also that this session would be very beneficial for all computational intelligence researchers and other specialties that are in need of the sophisticated neural networks tools. Papers that are, or might be, related to all aspects of the CVNNs are invited. We welcome contributions, where a fundamental theory is developed, as well as contributions, where different applied problems are considered. We also welcome potential contributions form other areas that are on the boarders of the proposed scope. Topics include, but are not limited to: * Theoretical Aspects of CVNNs and Complex-Valued Activation Functions * Complex-Valued Associative Memories * Dynamics of Complex-Valued Neurons * Learning Algorithms for CVNNs * Chaos in Complex Domain * Feedforward CVNNs * Pattern Recognition, Classification and Time Series Prediction using CVNNs * Spatiotemporal CVNNs Processing * Frequency Domain CVNNs Processing * Phase-Sensitive Signal Processing * Applications of CVNNs in Image Processing, Speech Processing and Bioinformatics * Quantum Computation and Quantum Neural Networks * CVNNs in Robotics * Quaternion and Clifford Networks For more information you may contact session organizers Igor Aizenberg igor.aizenberg at tamut.edu Akira Hirose ahirose at ee.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp Jacek M. Zurada jacek.zurada at louisville.edu From terry at salk.edu Thu Nov 12 17:30:04 2009 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:30:04 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - December, 2009 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 21, Number 12 - December 1, 2009 ARTICLES Is the Homunculus "Aware" of Sensory Adaptation? Peggy Series, Alan A. Stocker, and Eero P. Simoncelli Decoding Movement Trajectories through a T-Maze Using Point Process Filters Applied to Place Field Data from Rat Hippocampal Region CA1 Yifei Huang, Mark P. Brandon, Amy L. Griffin, Michael E. Hasselmo, and Uri T. Eden LETTERS Selective Population Rate Coding: A Possible Computational Role of Gamma Oscillations in Selective Attention Naoki Masuda Taming Fluctuations in a Stochastic Model of Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity Terry Elliott and Kostas Lagogiannis Learning to Discriminate Through Long-Term Changes of Dynamical Synaptic Transaction Christian Leibold and Michael H.K. Bendels Plasticity-Induced Symmetry Relationships Between Adjacent Self-Organizing Topographic Maps Jared Sylvester and James Reggia Asymptotic Behavior of Periodic Cohen-Grossberg Neural Networks with Delays Wei Lin Making the Error-Controlling Algorithm of Observable Operator Models Constructive Ming-Jie Zhao, Herbert Jaeger, and Michael Thon Estimation of Sparse Nonnegative Sources from Noisy Overcomplete Mixtures Using MAP Cesar F. Caiafa and Andrzej Chichoki On Blind Separability Based on the Temporal Predictability Method Shengli Xie , Guoxu Zhou, Zuyuan Yang, and Yuli Fu Adaptive Relevance Matrices in Learning Vector Quantization Petra Schneider, Michael Biehl, and Barbara Hammer ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2010 - VOLUME 22 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $65 $128 $60 Individual $115 $178 $107 Institution $962 $1,025 $860 Canada: Add 5% GST to USA prices MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu http://mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp ----- From rsun at rpi.edu Thu Nov 12 16:39:41 2009 From: rsun at rpi.edu (Professor Ron Sun) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:39:41 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Call for papers: "Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences?" Message-ID: <008FCC53-89F2-4C84-9F41-094F368206A3@rpi.edu> The workshop on "Cognitive Social Sciences---Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences?" http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010.html to be held at CogSci 2010 in Portland, Oregon, on August 11, 2010. This workshop is aimed at exploring the cognitive (psychological) basis of the social sciences and the possibilities of grounding the social sciences in cognition (psychology). Cognitive sciences have made tremendous strides in recent decades. In particular, computational cognitive modeling (i.e., computational psychology; Sun, 2008; Thagard, 1996) has changed the ways in which cognition/psychology is explored and understood in many profound respects. There have been many models of cognition/psychology proposed in the cognitive sciences (broadly defined), leading to detailed understanding of many cognitive/psychological domains and functionalities. Empirical psychological research has also progressed to provide us with much better understanding of many psychological phenomena. Given the advances in the cognitive sciences, can we leverage the successes for the sake of better understanding social processes and phenomena? More fundamentally, can the cognitive sciences (including experimental cognitive psychology, computational psychology, social- personality psychology, developmental psychology, cultural psychology, psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, and so on) provide a better foundation for important disciplines of the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, ethics, as well as some "humanity" fields: religious studies, history, legal studies, literary studies, communication, and so on)? Thus far, although very much a neglected topic, there nevertheless have been various efforts at exploring this topic. Some of the efforts were computationally motivated (see, e.g., Sun, 2006: "Cognition and multi-agent interaction", published by Cambridge University Press). Some other efforts are more empirical or theoretical in nature (see, e.g., Turner, 2001: "Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science", published by Oxford University Press). There are both theoretical and practical rationales for developing "cognitive social sciences" (see Turner, 2001; Sun, 2006; DiMaggio, 1997; Tetlock and Goldgeier, 2000; Camerer, 2003). We contend that the social sciences may find their future in the cognitive sciences (at least in part), which may well lead to a powerful and productive combined intellectual enterprise. This combination or grounding may provide the social sciences with imaginative scientific research programs, hybridization/integration, new syntheses, novel paradigms/ frameworks, and so on, besides providing the cognitive sciences new data sources and problems to address. The presentation and discussion at this workshop may lead to a collection of major work in the form of a well edited book to be published by a major academic publisher. Confirmed keynote speakers: Pascal Boyer Paul Thagard Mark Turner Submission: For regular oral presentation, please submit a paper of 3-8 pages, in the usual CogSci conference format (as specified at: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 ). Please email the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu For short oral or poster presentation, please submit an extended abstract of 1 page, in the usual CogSci conference format (as specified at: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/wsp2010 ). Please email the submission to: rsun at rpi dot edu Submission Deadline: February 15, 2010 Workshop Chair: Ron Sun Workshop Program Committee: Ron Sun Philip Tetlock Paul Thagard Paul Bello Jun Zhang ---------------- References: Camerer, C. (2003). Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments on Strategic Interaction. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DiMaggio, P. (1997). Culture and cognition. Annual Review of Sociology 23, 263-288. Sun, R. (2006). Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Mdoeling to Social Simulation. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2006. Sun, R. (ed.), (2008). The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2008. Tetlock, P. and Goldgeier, J. (2000). Human nature and world politics: Cognition, identity, and influence. International Journal of Psychology. 35 (2), 87-96. Thagard, P. (1996). Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1996. Thagard, P. (2006). Hot thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Turner, M. (2001). Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science. Oxford University Press. ======================================================== Professor Ron Sun Cognitive Science Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A Troy, NY 12180, USA phone: 518-276-3409 fax: 518-276-3017 email: rsun at rpi.edu web: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun ======================================================= From byronyu at stanford.edu Fri Nov 13 01:52:53 2009 From: byronyu at stanford.edu (Byron Yu) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:52:53 -0800 (PST) Subject: Connectionists: Cosyne 2010: Submission Deadline Reminder Message-ID: ================================================================= ***** REMINDER ***** ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 20 Nov 2009 Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING 25 - 28 Feb, 2010 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS 1 - 2 Mar, 2010 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah http://cosyne.org ================================================================= Cosyne is an annual meeting providing an inclusive forum for the exchange of experimental and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The meeting is expected to draw over 500 researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. The MAIN MEETING is organized in a single track, and consists of both oral and poster sessions. Some oral presentations are invited (see below), while others are selected based on short submitted abstracts. Poster presentations are also selected from the submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS are held in 4-8 parallel sessions per day, allowing for more in-depth discussion of specialized topics. CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: - Keynote: Clay Reid (Harvard Medical School) - Daphne Bavelier (University of Rochester) - Howard Berg (Harvard University) - Adrienne Fairhall (University of Washington) - John Lisman (Brandeis University) - Eve Marder (Brandeis University) - Tirin Moore (Stanford University) - Michael Platt (Duke University) - Nicholas Schiff (Cornell Medical School) - Jackie Schiller (Technion) - Anthony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories) Cosyne 2010 will include a special symposium in honour of Horace Barlow, featuring talks by: - Honorary Lecturer: Horace Barlow (Cambridge University) - David Field (Cornell University) - William Geisler (University of Texas) - Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto) - Simon Laughlin (Cambridge University) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: - General Chair: Maneesh Sahani (University College London) - Program Chairs: Anne Churchland (University of Washington) and Bartlett Mel (University of Southern California) - Workshop Chairs: Adam Kohn (Yeshiva University) and Mark Laubach (Yale University) - Communications Chair: Byron Yu (Carnegie Mellon University) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: - Anthony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) - Alexandre Pouget (University of Rochester) - Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme) ADVISORY BOARD: - Matteo Carandini (University College London) - Eero Simoncelli (New York University and HHMI) - Peter Dayan (University College London) - Steven Lisberger (UC San Francisco and HHMI) - Karel Svoboda (HHMI Janelia Farm) From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Fri Nov 13 07:27:19 2009 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:27:19 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics -- new issue Message-ID: <4AFD50A7.5080500@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 101, issue 4 --- Table of Content Original papers: "Leg recirculation in horizontal plane locomotion" A. Wickramasuriya & J. Schmitt Page 247 - 263, http://www.springerlink.com/content/27tl431758r00047/ "The firing statistics of Poisson neuron models driven by slow stimuli" Eugenio Urdapilleta & In?s Samengo Page 265 - 277, http://www.springerlink.com/content/0234820504u7602q/ "Estimation of psychomotor delay from the Fitts? law coefficients" Dan Beamish, Shabana Bhatti, C. Scott Chubbs, I. Scott MacKenzie, Jianhong Wu & Zhujun Jing Page 279 - 296, http://www.springerlink.com/content/p046238p771412k6/ "Understanding effects on excitability of simulated I h modulation in simple neuronal models" Anne Lippert & Victoria Booth Page 297 - 306, http://www.springerlink.com/content/x015w2r88978p373/ "Modelling place memory in crickets" Michael Mangan & Barbara Webb Page 307 - 323, http://www.springerlink.com/content/yw41030622021500/ ---- Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From oby at cs.tu-berlin.de Mon Nov 16 09:20:28 2009 From: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de (Klaus Obermayer) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:20:28 +0100 (MET) Subject: Connectionists: full professorship in neurotechnology Message-ID: The Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Berlin and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin) is soliciting applications for a Full Professorship in Neurotechnology The successful candidate is expected to have extensive knowledge in the field of "Neurotechnology" with experience in real-time detection of brain states and the respective data analysis methods, as well as experimental brain imaging techniques (especially EEG, but also MEG, NIRS, fMRI) and technology development. Experience in a technical application domain (e.g. brain computer interfaces, neuroergonomics, augmented reality) and in the acquisition of third party funding is desirable. Applicants are also expected to contribute to the teaching within the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Master programs as well as the Berlin-wide Master-/PhD-Program "Computational Neuroscience". Berlin has a the rich scientific community in the fields related to Neurotechnology, for example: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience: http://www.bccn-berlin.de Berlin School of Mind and Brain: http://www.mind-and-brain.de/ Excellence Cluster Neurocure: http://www.neurocure.de/ as well as many research groups working on Machine Learning, Robotics, Statistical Methods and Signal Processing at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Berlin Institute of Technology, see http://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/menue/einrichtungen/professorinnen_fachgebiete/ Please submit your application (reference IV - 822) with the usual documents by 11.12.2009 to the Pr?sident der Technischen Universit?t Berlin, Dekan der Fakult?t IV, Sekr. FR 5-1, Franklinstr. 28-29, 10587 Berlin. Full details can be found in the official call for applications (http://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/f4/fkIVdokumente/aktuelles/ Ausschreibung-Neuro.pdf). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer phone: 49-30-314-73442 FR2-1, NI, Fakultaet IV 49-30-314-73120 Technische Universitaet Berlin fax: 49-30-314-73121 Franklinstrasse 28/29 e-mail: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de 10587 Berlin, Germany http://ni.cs.tu-berlin.de/ From m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk Tue Nov 17 08:54:24 2009 From: m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?M=E1t=E9_Lengyel?=) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:54:24 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: postdoc in computational neuroscience Message-ID: Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Neuroscience University of Cambridge We are seeking a highly creative and motivated postdoctoral fellow (research associate) to work in the group of Mate Lengyel at the Computational and Biological Learning Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge (http://learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Lengyel/). The group studies learning and memory from computational, algorithmic/ representational and neurobiological viewpoints. Computationally and algorithmically, we use ideas from Bayesian approaches to statistical inference and reinforcement learning to characterize the goals and mechanisms of learning in terms of normative principles and behavioral results. We also perform dynamical systems analyses of reduced biophysical models to understand the mapping of these mechanisms into cellular and network models. The post is funded by a Wellcome Trust project grant on "Spike timing- based memory in the hippocampus" involving collaboration with Peter Dayan (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL), and the groups of Ole Paulsen (Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University) and Francesco Battaglia (SILS Center for Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam) providing direct access to relevant in vitro and in vivo electrophysiological data. The successful candidate will have a strong analytical background and demonstrable interest in theoretical neuroscience. They should have or be close to completion of a PhD or equivalent in computational neuroscience, physics, mathematics, computer science, machine learning or a related field. Previous experience in computational neuroscience is not required, but preference will be given to candidates with sufficient programming skills to run numerical simulations (eg. in C or MatLab), or expertise with neural network models, analysis of dynamical systems, and Bayesian techniques. The appointment will be for 1 year initially (extendable subject to funding) starting 1 April 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. Salary is in the range ?27,183-?35,469 p.a. The cover sheet for applications, PD18 is available from www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/forms/pd18/ . Parts I, II and III should be sent, preferably by e-mail, with a letter of application, a statement of research interests, and a CV (in pdf or plain text formats if possible) with the names and full contact details (including e-mail addresses) of three referees to Ms Diane Unwin (dsu21 at cam.ac.uk), Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, (tel: +44 (0)1223 3 32600, fax: +44 (0)1223 3 32662), so as to reach her not later than 7 December 2009. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed as soon as possible after the closing date. -- Mate Lengyel, PhD Computational and Biological Learning Lab Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK tel: +44 (0)1223 748 532, fax: +44 (0)1223 332 662 email: m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk web: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~m.lengyel From bressler at fau.edu Tue Nov 17 08:44:01 2009 From: bressler at fau.edu (Steven Bressler) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:44:01 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Conference on Neurocognitive Networks Message-ID: <799136EF1D0B406989F9F4834B63AA88@opal> Neurocognitive Networks 2010 (http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~bressler/NCNC10/NCNC10.html) will take place at Florida Atlantic University on January 29-30, 2010. The conference will aim to increase understanding of all aspects of neurocognitive networks. There is growing evidence that cognitive brain function must be understood in terms of distributed, interacting systems. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have been made possible by analysis of the large-scale brain networks underlying cognition, or neurocognitive networks for short. The study of neurocognitive networks has provided new and exciting insights into brain function. Advances have come from the cooperative work of multiple disciplines, including functional neuroimaging, electrophysiology, network modeling, and cognitive science. An abiding lesson is that a synthesis of experimental, analytical, and theoretical approaches is required to understand neurocognitive networks, since no single discipline or methodology in itself is adequate. The guiding principle for the conference is that progress can be made toward understanding the neural basis of cognition by cross-fertilization at the intersection of four contemporary research themes: (1) neuroimaging of neurocognitive network function; (2) electrophysiology of neurocognitive network dynamics; (3) computational modeling of neurocognitive networks; (4) theory of neurocognitive networks. The conference schedule will be organized according to this scheme, with one session for each theme. Registration for the Neurocognitive Networks conference is open to interested faculty and students, as well as those from the community-at-large. Seating is limited, and advanced registration is required for admission. For registration, please see the Neurocognitive Networks 2010 Registration Page at http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~bressler/NCNC10/Registration.html. Neurocognitive Networks 2010 is sponsored by The Cognitive Neuroscience Program of the National Science Foundation, and The Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at FAU. From mail at mkaiser.de Tue Nov 17 17:15:19 2009 From: mail at mkaiser.de (mail@mkaiser.de) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:15:19 +0100 (MET) Subject: Connectionists: 4-year PhD programme in Systems Neuroscience (Newcastle University) Message-ID: <200911172215.nAHMFJwJ021052@post.webmailer.de> Dear all, our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in systems neuroscience, aimed at applicants from the physical sciences (physics, engineering, mathematics, or computer science), is now accepting applications for studentships starting in September 2010 (see below). Research areas include Neuroinformatics, Computational Neuroscience, Neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI, EEG, ECoG), Brain Connectivity, and Brain Dynamics (simulations and time series analysis). Best, Marcus Systems Neuroscience: From Networks to Behaviour - sponsored by the Wellcome Trust Programme Directors: Prof Miles Whittington, Prof Tim Griffiths and Dr Marcus Kaiser The Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University integrates more than 100 principal investigators across medicine, psychology, computer science, and engineering. Research in systems, cellular, computational, and behavioural neuroscience. Laboratory facilities include auditory and visual psychophysics; rodent, monkey, and human neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI, PET); TMS; optical recording, multi-electrode neurophysiology, confocal and fluorescence imaging, high-throughput computing and e-science, artificial sensory-motor devices, clinical testing, and the only brain bank for molecular changes in human brain development The Wellcome Trust?s Four-year PhD Programmes are a flagship scheme aimed at supporting the most promising students to undertake in-depth postgraduate research training. The first year combines taught courses with three laboratory rotations to broaden students? knowledge of the subject area. At the end of the first year, students will make an informed choice of their three-year PhD research project. This programme is based at Newcastle University and is aimed to provide specialised training for physical and computational scientists (e.g. physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and computer science) wishing to apply their skills to a research neuroscience career. Eligibility/Person Specification: Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a 1st or 2:1 degree, or equivalent, in a physical sciences, engineering, mathematics or computing degree. Value of the award: Support includes a stipend for 4 years, PhD registration fees at UK/EU student rate, research expenses, general training funds and some travel costs. How to apply: You must apply through the University's online postgraduate application form (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/applications/index.htm) inserting the reference number ION64 and selecting PhD Faculty of Medical Sciences - Neuroscience (full time) as the programme of study. Only mandatory fields need to be completed (no personal statement required) and a covering letter, CV and (if English is not your first language) a copy of your English language qualifications must be attached. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote the reference number ION64 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project. The deadline for receiving applications is 17 January 2010. You should also send your covering letter and CV to Scott MacMillan, Postgraduate Secretary, Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, or by email to scott.macmillan at ncl.ac.uk. For more information, see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/postgrad/research/wellcome/ -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K. Phone: +44 191 222 8161 Fax: +44 191 222 8232 http://www.biological-networks.org/ From ken at neurotheory.columbia.edu Thu Nov 19 10:53:17 2009 From: ken at neurotheory.columbia.edu (Ken Miller) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:53:17 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Graduate study in the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University Message-ID: GRADUATE STUDY IN THE CENTER FOR THEORETICAL NEUROSCIENCE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY The Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University in New York City is accepting applications for graduate students. We provide an exciting and interactive environment for neural theorists embedded within the vibrant Columbia neuroscience community. Students may work on purely theoretical projects, on the theoretical and analytical side of a collaboration with experimentalists, or may choose to do both theory and experiment. Dual mentors (theory and experiment) are encouraged though not required. The full range of Columbia's neuroscience, math, physics, and other coursework are available to all students. The Center also provides training and collaboration opportunities for students primarily engaged in experimental neuroscience. The faculty of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (CTN) (http://www.neurotheory.columbia.edu) include: Larry Abbott, Co-Director: Computational modeling and mathematical analysis of neurons and neural networks. Ken Miller, Co-Director: Theory and modeling of the circuitry, development, and function of sensory cortex Stefano Fusi: Modeling higher cognitive functions, theory of neural circuits implementing abstract rules. Liam Paninski: Statistical analysis of the neural code. Ning Qian: Visual computation and psychophysics. Misha Tsodyks (Visiting, 3 months/year): Models of brain function. We have rich interactions with the larger Columbia neuroscience community (see http://www.neuroscience.columbia.edu), including many active collaborations. While students may work with any Columbia faculty, those with whom CTN has thus far had the most active interactions include: Richard Axel: Defining the logic of olfactory perception Randy Bruno: Synaptic connectivity underlying cortical computation Aniruddha Das: The brain mechanisms of early stages of visual processing Vince Ferrera: Cognitive visual neuroscience Claude Ghez: Control of limb movements in humans and animals Mickey Goldberg: The physiology of cognitive processes: visual attention, spatial perception and decision making. Jackie Gottlieb: Neural mechanisms of attention and cognition Norma Graham: Psychophysics and mathematical models of visual perception Wes Grueber: Mechanisms of dendritic morphogenesis and patterning Rene Hen: Animal models of depression and anxiety; neurogenesis Joy Hirsch: Neuroimaging of cognitive, perceptual, emotional, and language processes in health and in psychiatric and neurological disorders Tom Jessell: The specification of neuronal identity and connectivity Eric Kandel: Molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms of memory storage John Krakauer: Neural basis of limb movement control in health and neurologic disease Attila Losonczy: Dendritic and synaptic mechanisms of information processing and storage Dan Salzman: Neural mechanisms underlying emotional learning and behavior Nate Sawtell: Cerebellum and cerebellum-like structures; how past experience and sensorimotor context affect sensory processing Steve Siegelbaum: Voltage-gated ion channels and dendritic integration in learning, memory, and information processing Chris Wiggins: Applied mathematics, networks, machine learning Sarah Wooley: Neural mechanisms of auditory perception and vocal communication Rafa Yuste: Structure, function and development of the cortical microcircuitry Charles Zucker: How the periphery and the brain encode and decode sensory stimuli: taste coding, thermosensation, spatial coding. TO APPLY: You may work with us as a member of any graduate program at Columbia. Most often our students come from the Neurobiology and Behavior graduate program (http://www.neurosciencephd.columbia.edu; APPLICATION DEADLINE DECEMBER 7 2009), but students may also come from other programs such as Applied Math, Bioengineering, Physics, or Statistics. See http://www.neurotheory.columbia.edu/apply.html for more general instructions, including links to a variety of relevant Columbia graduate programs. Center for Theoretical Neuroscience: http://www.neurotheory.columbia.edu Neuroscience at Columbia: http://www.neuroscience.columbia.edu Neurobiology and Behavior Ph.D. program: http://www.neurosciencephd.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/63b3f068/attachment-0001.html From robbie at bcs.rochester.edu Thu Nov 19 11:19:21 2009 From: robbie at bcs.rochester.edu (Robert Jacobs) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:19:21 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: topiCS -- Integrated Approaches to Perceptual Learning Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20091119111422.073a4858@bcs.rochester.edu> A forthcoming issue of the journal Topics in Cognitive Science (topiCS) is dedicated to the topic "Integrated Approaches to Perceptual Learning". Here is the list of articles: To the trained eye: Perceptual expertise alters visual processing by Kim M. Curby and Isabel Gauthier http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122675219/PDFSTART Perceptual learning during action video game playing by C. Shawn Green, Renjie Li, and Daphne Bavelier http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122669284/PDFSTART Visual learning in multisensory environments by Robert A. Jacobs and Ladan Shams http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122675217/PDFSTART Shared mechanisms of perceptual learning and decision making by Chi-Tat Law and Joshua I. Gold http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122542400/PDFSTART Mechanisms of visual perceptual learning in macaque visual cortex by Rufin Vogels http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122669277/PDFSTART Statistical models of natural images and cortical visual representation by Aapo Hyvarinen http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122675218/PDFSTART The education of perception by Robert L. Goldstone, David H. Landy, and Ji Y. Son http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122669285/PDFSTART Perceptual learning modules in mathematics: Enhancing students' pattern recognition, structure extraction, and fluency by Philip J. Kellman, Christine M. Massey, and Ji Y. Son http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122669283/PDFSTART Spontaneous and training-induced visual learning in cortical blindness: Characteristics and neural substrates by Tim Martin and Krystel R. Huxlin http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122669281/PDFSTART ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Jacobs Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627-0268 phone: 585-275-0753 fax: 585-442-9216 email: robbie at bcs.rochester.edu web: http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/people/robbie/jacobslab/people.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/b9ec1824/attachment-0001.html From terry at salk.edu Fri Nov 20 00:00:22 2009 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:22 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: *NIPS Whistler Workshop - Curse of Dimensionality* In-Reply-To: Message-ID: NIPS 2009 Workshop - Whistler Canada - http://nips.cc/Conferences/2009/Program/ http://nips.cc/Conferences/2009/Program/event.php?ID=1511 The Curse of Dimensionality Problem: How Does the Brain Solve It? Friday, December 11, 2009 Organizers: Simon Haykin, McMaster University Terry Sejnowski, Salk Institute and UCSD Steven Zucker, Yale University The notion of "Curse of Dimensionality" was coined by Richard Bellman (1961). It refers to the exponential increase in computing a task of interest when extra dimensions are added to an associated mathematical space. For example, it arises in solving dynamic programming and optimal control problems when the dimension of the state vector is large. It also arises in solving learning problems when a finite number of data samples is used to learn a "state of nature, the distribution of which is infinitely large." Much has been written on the curse of dimensionality problem in the mathematics and engineering literature. In contrast, little is known on how the human brain solves problems of this kind with relative ease. The key question is: How does the brain do it? To address this basic problem, it may be that we can learn from the mathematics and engineering literature, reformulated in the context of neuroscience. This one-day workshop at NIPS 2009 is aimed at addressing the issues involved in the curses (and blessings) of dimensionality. Workshop Schedule: Friday, December 11, 2009 Morning 7:30AM Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute) Tutorial: Scaling Principles and Brain Architecture 7:45AM Simon Haykin (McMaster University) Tutorial: The Curse of Dimensionality and How to Mitigate It in Dynamic Programming Applications 8:15AM Break 8:30AM Gerry Tesauro (IBM Watson) RL Successes and Challenges in High-Dimensional Games 9:15AM Break 9:30AM John Tsotsos (York University) How the Brain Deals with the Computational Complexity of Vision: A Different Kind of Dimensionality Curse Afternoon 4:00PM Naftali Tishby (Weizmann Institute) Predictive Information Bottleneck: Why Simple Organisms Can Cope with Complex Environments" 4:45PM Break 5:00PM Les Valiant (Harvard University) Experience-Induced Neural Circuits That Achieve High Capacity 5:45PM Break 6:00PM Pentti Kanerva(Stanford University) Hyper-dimensional Computing: Computing in Distributed Representation with High-dimensional Random Vectors Workshop Format: Each speaker will have 45 minutes including discussion. The talks are informal with interruptions welcome during the talks. From dorney at cnbc.cmu.edu Fri Nov 20 09:28:11 2009 From: dorney at cnbc.cmu.edu (Barbara Dorney) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:28:11 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: SAND5 - 2010 Message-ID: <4B06A77B.7020701@cnbc.cmu.edu> The fifth international workshop on Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND5) will take place May 20-22, 2010, in Pittsburgh, PA. This workshop series is concerned with analysis methods for neural signals from various sources, including EEG, fMRI, MEG, 2-Photon, and extracellular recordings. It aims to * define important problems in neural data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; * foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods; * encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; * expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues. We expect some travel funds to be available. A series of short talks (20 minutes, including questions) will be given by young investigators (within 5 years of Ph.D.) on a competitive basis. Anyone interested in presenting their work as a talk should submit an abstract by February 28. In addition, all participants are encouraged to present posters involving new methodology, investigation of existing methods, or application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques. We expect there to be a special issue of the Journal of Computational Neuroscience devoted to analysis of neural data, including many papers from this workshop. Here are the confirmed keynote speakers: Nancy Kopell (Boston U.) Tom Mitchell (Carnegie Mellon) Partha Mitra (Cold Spring Harbor) Tirin Moore (Stanford) Clay Reid (Harvard) Walt Schneider (Pittsburgh) Garrett Stanley (Georgia Tech) Mriganka Sur (MIT) The organizers are Emery Brown, Elizabeth Buffalo, Rob Kass, Liam Paninski, and Jonathan Victor. For further information please see http://sand.stat.cmu.edu. From mvanross at inf.ed.ac.uk Fri Nov 20 12:45:33 2009 From: mvanross at inf.ed.ac.uk (Mark van Rossum) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:45:33 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Readership opening in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <200911201745.33559.mvanross@inf.ed.ac.uk> Readership opening in Computational Neuroscience The School of Informatics is expanding its activity in computational neuroscience and seeks to make a new appointment at the Readership level (similar to US Associate Professor). The successful candidate will have an international research profile in computational neuroscience as applied to any aspect of the development and functioning of the nervous system. Both candidates engaged in computational modelling, and candidates who combine computational and experimental approaches are invited to apply. We are particularly interested in people who can develop collaborations with the broad spectrum of basic and clinical neuroscientists at Edinburgh, and/or develop links with other related fields represented at Edinburgh such as bioinformatics, systems biology and machine learning. The appointee will join the existing computational neuroscience group, which includes five core academic staff and five postdoctoral researchers. The group has extensive research collaborations within the university, the UK and overseas, with considerable grant support. The appointee will have the opportunity to be involved with the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience. The DTC offers 12 funded 4-year PhD studentships annually, and with over 50 PhD projects currently running in this area provides a lively community. See also http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/ http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/dtc/ To apply use http://www.jobs.ed.ac.uk ref. 3011971 Informal enquiries can be directed to Prof David Willshaw (willshaw at inf.ed.ac.uk) or Dr Mark van Rossum (mvanross at inf.ed.ac.uk) -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. From sabes at phy.ucsf.edu Wed Nov 18 10:19:50 2009 From: sabes at phy.ucsf.edu (Philip N. Sabes) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:19:50 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Position Available: Scientific Hardware/Software Engineer Message-ID: <4B041096.9020007@phy.ucsf.edu> SCIENTIFIC HARDWARE/SOFTWARE ENGINEER. The Keck Center for Integrative Neurobiology and the Department of Physiology at UCSF are seeking an engineer or scientist to join a new multi-laboratory project to develop cross-species tools for the optical stimulation of neural circuits. Primary responsibilities will be the development and testing of hardware/software systems for multichannel optical stimulation in-vivo, helping to design new technological solutions to overcome experimental hurdles, and working to disseminate technology between laboratories. Applicants must meet the following requirements: bachelor?s degree in a relevant engineering or science discipline, with a PhD preferred; expertise in optical and/or electronic circuit design and hardware/software interfacing; strong programming skills; the communication skills to work effectively with lab members during design and implementation phases. Applicants with the following will be preferred: experience working in scientific lab environment; experience working with optical circuits. For more information please contact Dr. Philip Sabes, sabes at phy.ucsf.edu. To apply, please send a CV with a cover letter describing relevant experience to Ned Molyneaux, molyneau at phy.ucsf.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Philip N. Sabes Associate Professor Department of Physiology | office: HSE 816 513 Parnassus Ave., Room HSE-816 | phone: (415) 476-0364 University of California | fax: (415) 502-4848 San Francisco, CA 94143-0444 | email: sabes at phy.ucsf.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------ From Sharon.Crook at asu.edu Wed Nov 18 13:54:45 2009 From: Sharon.Crook at asu.edu (Sharon Crook) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:54:45 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NeuroML Postdoctoral Position References: <68656C04C7C0AA4883E870908A8577B20AE771FA@EX03.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Message-ID: <68656C04C7C0AA4883E870908A8577B20AE771FB@EX03.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Postdoctoral Position in Computational Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics: NeuroML Standards and Tools for Multiscale Model Specification and Exchange Computational models based on detailed neuroanatomical and electrophysiological data have been used for many years as an aid for understanding of the function of the nervous system. NeuroML is an international, collaborative initiative to develop standards for describing models of neural systems. The NeuroML model specifications facilitate the exchange of complex neural models, allow for greater transparency and accessibility of models, enhance interoperability between simulators and other tools, and support the development of new software and databases. NeuroML is a free and open community effort developed with input from many contributors. We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to contribute to further development of NeuroML. The position is somewhat flexible and can include NeuroML schema design and implementation, tool development and testing, website development and maintenance, and model database design and implementation. The position also provides opportunities for involvement in computational modeling studies. The postdoc will be located in the computational laboratory of Dr. Sharon Crook (http://math.asu.edu/~crook) at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona (http://www.asu.edu). Prior extensive programming experience is required, and experience with XML, website and database development, and computational neuroscience research would be beneficial. The candidate also must be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills and the ability to work as part of a team. Some international travel is required. Locally, the postdoctoral researcher will interact with faculty, students and other postdoctoral researchers in the Center for Adaptive Neural Systems (http://ans.asu.edu) at ASU. ASU has vibrant, interdisciplinary research communities in neuroscience, biomedical informatics, and high-performance computing. Candidates should send a curriculum vitae, a short summary of research experience and interests, and the contact information (name, address, phone number and email) for three references to: Dr. Sharon Crook at sharon.crook at asu.edu. Sharon Crook Arizona State University sharon.crook at asu.edu http://math.la.asu.edu/~crook http://www.neuroml.org From byronyu at stanford.edu Thu Nov 19 01:14:06 2009 From: byronyu at stanford.edu (Byron Yu) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:14:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: Connectionists: Cosyne 2010: Submission Deadline Reminder Message-ID: ***** REMINDER ***** ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 11:59PM PST on 20 Nov 2009. Abstracts submitted by the deadline may be revised until 11:59PM PST on Sunday, 22 Nov 2009. IMPORTANT NOTE: The deadline will not be extended this year. Be sure to submit on time!! ================================================================= Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING 25 - 28 Feb, 2010 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS 1 - 2 Mar, 2010 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah http://cosyne.org ================================================================= Cosyne is an annual meeting providing an inclusive forum for the exchange of experimental and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The meeting is expected to draw over 500 researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. The MAIN MEETING is organized in a single track, and consists of both oral and poster sessions. Some oral presentations are invited (see below), while others are selected based on short submitted abstracts. Poster presentations are also selected from the submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS are held in 4-8 parallel sessions per day, allowing for more in-depth discussion of specialized topics. CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: - Keynote: Clay Reid (Harvard Medical School) - Daphne Bavelier (University of Rochester) - Howard Berg (Harvard University) - Adrienne Fairhall (University of Washington) - John Lisman (Brandeis University) - Eve Marder (Brandeis University) - Tirin Moore (Stanford University) - Michael Platt (Duke University) - Nicholas Schiff (Cornell Medical School) - Jackie Schiller (Technion) - Anthony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories) Cosyne 2010 will include a special symposium in honour of Horace Barlow, featuring talks by: - Honorary Lecturer: Horace Barlow (Cambridge University) - David Field (Cornell University) - William Geisler (University of Texas) - Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto) - Simon Laughlin (Cambridge University) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: - General Chair: Maneesh Sahani (University College London) - Program Chairs: Anne Churchland (University of Washington) and Bartlett Mel (University of Southern California) - Workshop Chairs: Adam Kohn (Yeshiva University) and Mark Laubach (Yale University) - Communications Chair: Byron Yu (Carnegie Mellon University) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: - Anthony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) - Alexandre Pouget (University of Rochester) - Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme) ADVISORY BOARD: - Matteo Carandini (University College London) - Eero Simoncelli (New York University and HHMI) - Peter Dayan (University College London) - Steven Lisberger (UC San Francisco and HHMI) - Karel Svoboda (HHMI Janelia Farm) From kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Thu Nov 19 08:51:30 2009 From: kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:51:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc-Position "Investigation of activity-dependent signal integration in neocortical neurons" at the Bernstein Center Freiburg Message-ID: <9C84503EF1E44190AD2FC9CB0E42197F@janina> Postdoc-Position "Investigation of activity-dependent signal integration in neocortical neurons" Our lab uses combined intra- and extracellular recordings in rat V1 in vivo, as well as dynamic photo stimulation of acute brain slices to study network dynamics in V1 and the influence of dynamical states on the integration of synaptic input in pyramidal cells. The offered position is funded by the EU FACETS program (http://facets.kip.uni-heidelberg.de), and should, therein, contribute to the aspect of experimental characterization of cortical cells and networks in vivo and in vitro. The goal of our work is to link the obtained electrophysiological data, in close collaboration with other groups at the BCCN and within FACETS, to new models of neocortical networks, aimed to better understand the mechanisms underlying network dynamics in the cortex. The post-doc position is available immediately for 1 year with an optional one year extension. We are looking for experimentalists with a solid background in electrophysiological recording techniques and interest in computational neuroscience. Please apply via the online application form: http://www.bccn2.uni-freiburg.de/postdoc_applications/index.php (Project-ID: FACETS) -- Dr. Janina Kirsch -- Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 Email: kirsch @bcf.uni-freiburg.de Web: www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/3e66f587/attachment-0001.html From kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Thu Nov 19 08:51:30 2009 From: kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:51:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Position for a Junior Scientist (Research Associate) in Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg Message-ID: % apologies for multiple postings % Junior Scientist Position (Research Associate) at the Laboratory for Biomicrotechnology, Dept. of Microsystems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering University of Freiburg, Freiburg The Laboratory for Biomicrotechnology ( Prof. Ulrich Egert) offers a junior scientist position ( A13, up to 4 years) for a biologist with expertise on electrophysiology, cell culture of neuronal networks, neurophysiology in acute brain slices and/or Ca-imaging. We are interested in the mechanisms and structures underlying the activity dynamics in neuronal networks and the processing of neuronal activity within the network. In joint projects with computational neuroscientists we investigate how the biological neuronal networks process incoming stimuli, what determines intrinsic activity, how pathological dynamics arise and how to contain them. To address these questions we use acute brain slices, cell cultures and animal models with a variety of techniques. A central technology is extracellular recording the neuronal activity with microelectrode arrays to analyze the spatio-temporal structure of activity. Recordings with these arrays are combined with paired intracellular recordings, calcium imaging, microstimulation and advanced data analyses. New technical and analysis tools are developed as needed in collaborations with microsystems engineers. This work is embedded in the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg (BCCN Freiburg) and the new Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology - Freiburg/Tuebingen. The successful candidate is expected to contribute to the teaching and training program of these iniatives. Candidates should have outstanding academic records and an interest in translational neuroscience and neurotechnology. The position is open immediately until filled. For further information, please contact Prof. Ulrich Egert (Head of laboratory) or Dr. Janina Kirsch (Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs). -- Dr. Janina Kirsch -- Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 Email: kirsch @bcf.uni-freiburg.de Web: www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/43d735ab/attachment-0001.html From kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Thu Nov 19 08:51:30 2009 From: kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:51:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD-Positions in Neuroinformatics, including Computational Neuroscience (Erasmus Mundus Program) Message-ID: <65755ADBA7CC4989BBD1D5EAE8DE61F2@janina> The Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Program "EuroSPIN " (European Study Programme in Neuroinformatics) is inviting applications from students having a solid background in mathematics, physics, computer sciences, biochemistry or neuroscience (on a master level or equivalent), in all cases with computer science skills. Documented interest in research like activities (e.g. demonstrated in the form of master thesis work, or participation in research related activities) is of large importance. Also fluency in English is requested. Neuroinformatics combines neuroscience and informatics research to develop and apply computational tools and approaches that are essential for understanding the structure and function of the brain. Four partners participate in EuroSPIN: - KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden - University of Edinburg (UoE), UK - National Centre for Biological Science (NCBS), India - Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg (ALUF), Germany These four partners are all research leaders in the Neuroinformatics field, but they have complementary strengths. In addition, two associated partners, the Honda Research Institute and Nordita, participate. Each student will spend most of the time at two of the partner universities, and also receive a joint (or double) PhD degree following a successful completion of the studies. The mobility periods, as well as the courses a student will follow, are tailored individually based on: a) the PhD students background; b) which constellations of partners that are involved, as well as c) the specific research project. During the PhD period each student has one main supervisor from each of the two universities that grant the PhD degree. During the application process, the students are asked to indicate their preferences with regard to constellations of partners, and also preferred project ideas/areas can be indicated and motivated. There are excellent scholarship opportunities for students accepted to an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate programme. A stipend or employment contract will be given to all selected PhD students during the study time, which is between 3-4 years. If you are interested, go to our homepage: http://www.kth.se/studies/phd/eurospin?l=en_UK. Deadline for Application: December 15, 2009. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/eb036e51/attachment-0001.html From kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Thu Nov 19 08:51:30 2009 From: kirsch at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:51:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc-Position in Biomicrotechnology at the University of Freiburg, Germany Message-ID: Development of an electrophysiological in vitro neurotoxicology assay Project Description: In a new project that started september '09 we evaluate the activity patterns in neuronal networks in vitro to assess developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) in long-term multi-electrode electrophysiological recordings. The result should contribute to the development of pharmacological safety tests that would reduce the number of animals needed for DNT testing of industrial chemicals. Requirements: A PhD or doctoral degree in natural sciences is required. The candidate should have extensive experience with cell cultures and ideally also with electrophysiological recordings and their analysis. Knowledge on pharmacological testing would be a plus. Job offer: You would work in an interdisciplinary and international group interested in the properties of neuronal networks and their pathologies. The group is located at the IMTEK, an institute of the technical faculty, and is well embedded in the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology in Freiburg. The position is limited to 2 years. The salary is based on TV-L E13 (40.700-47.200 EUR depending on relevant work experience). Contact: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Egert Faculty of Engineering, Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Biomicrotechnology , Department of Microsystems Engineering Georges-Koehler-Allee 102 79110 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 761 203 7524 Fax: +49 321210 34 429 E-mail -- Dr. Janina Kirsch -- Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 Email: kirsch @bcf.uni-freiburg.de Web: www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091119/1dc6b743/attachment-0001.html From astocker at sas.upenn.edu Sat Nov 21 16:19:07 2009 From: astocker at sas.upenn.edu (Alan Stocker) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:19:07 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Computational and Systems Neuroscience at UPenn Message-ID: <94F50310-3FAE-4409-8947-BC74089EB02C@sas.upenn.edu> Computational and Systems Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania - Ph.D. Opportunities The University of Pennsylvania offers state-of-the-art training opportunities for students interested in computational and systems approaches to neuroscience. Candidates admitted to either the Psychology or the Neuroscience graduate program have the opportunity to join laboratories whose research programs combine experimental and computational approaches in systems neuroscience. Tailored graduate coursework as well as colloquia and journal clubs guarantee an excellent education of depth and breadth. Representative faculty include: Geoffrey Aguirre: neural basis of high-level vision Vijay Balasubramanian: models of early visual processing David Brainard: models of color and surface perception Yale Cohen: auditory processing in cortex Diego Contreras: representation of information in cortical networks Russell Epstein: navigation and scene perception Alan Gelperin: olfactory processing and learning Josh Gold: neural basis of perceptual decision making Joseph Kable: neuroeconomics Michael Kahana: neural mechanisms and models of memory Javier Medina: neural basis of motor learning Isabel Muzzio: neural basis of declarative memory Michael Nusbaum: motor pattern selection from multifunctional networks Larry Palmer: cortical circuits of early visual processing Nicole Rust: neural basis of object recognition Marc Schmidt: neural basis of vocal behavior Rob Smith: function of retinal circuitry Alan Stocker: probabilistic models of perception and cognition For more information, please visit: Penn Psychology (Deadline Dec 15th): http://www.psych.upenn.edu/graduate Penn Neuroscience (Deadline Dec 8th): http://www.med.upenn.edu/ngg/program.shtml -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091121/774a2670/attachment.html From esann at uclouvain.be Sun Nov 22 10:34:22 2009 From: esann at uclouvain.be (esann) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:34:22 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: ESANN'2010: extended submission deadline Message-ID: <009201ca6b89$44302d20$cc908760$@be> Due to numerous requests, the deadline to submit papers to the ESANN 2010 conference has been extended to December 2, 2009. Note that this extended deadline is strict: no further extension will be given. The message below is a reminder of the call for papers. Looking forward to seeing you at ESANN 2010, The organizing committee. ESANN 2010 18th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning Bruges (Belgium) - April 28-29-30, 2010 Announcement and call for papers =================================================== The call for papers for the ESANN'2010 conference is now available at the following URL: http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann For those of you who maintain WWW pages including lists of related ANN sites: we would appreciate if you could add the above URL to your list; thank you very much! We make all possible efforts to avoid sending multiple copies of this call for papers; however we apologize if you receive this e-mail twice, despite our precautions. ***** Extended deadline for submission of papers: December 2, 2009 ***** You will find below a short version of this call for papers, without the instructions to authors (available on the Web). ESANN'2010 is organized in collaboration with the UCL (Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve) and the KULeuven (Katholiek Universiteit Leuven). The conference is technically co-sponsored by the International Neural Networks Society, the European Neural Networks Society, the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, the IEEE Region 8, the IEEE Benelux Section (sponsors to be confirmed). Scope and topics ---------------- Since its first happening in 1993, ESANN has become a reference for researchers on fundamentals and theoretical aspects of artificial neural networks, computational intelligence, machine learning and related topics. Each year, around 100 specialists attend ESANN, in order to present their latest results and comprehensive surveys, and to discuss the future developments in this field. The ESANN'2010 conference will follow this tradition, while adapting its scope to the new developments in the field. The ESANN conferences cover artificial neural networks, machine learning, statistical information processing and computational intelligence. Mathematical foundations, algorithms and tools, and applications are covered. The following is a non-exhaustive list of machine learning, computational intelligence and artificial neural networks topics covered during the ESANN conferences: THEORY and MODELS Statistical and mathematical aspects of learning Feedforward models Kernel machines Graphical models, EM and Bayesian learning Vector quantization and self-organizing maps Recurrent networks and dynamical systems Blind signal processing Ensemble learning Nonlinear projection and data visualization Fuzzy neural networks Evolutionary computation Bio-inspired systems INFORMATION PROCESSING and APPLICATIONS Data mining Signal processing and modeling Approximation and identification Classification and clustering Feature extraction and dimension reduction Time series forecasting Multimodal interfaces and multichannel processing Adaptive control Vision and sensory systems Biometry Bioinformatics Brain-computer interfaces Neuroinformatics Papers will be presented orally (single track) and in poster sessions; all posters will be complemented by a short oral presentation during a plenary session. It is important to mention that the topics of a paper decide if it better fits into an oral or a poster session, not its quality. The selection of posters will be identical to oral presentations, and both will be printed in the same way in the proceedings. Nevertheless, authors must indicate their preference for oral or poster presentation when submitting their paper. Special sessions ================ 1. Sparse representation of data Thomas Villmann (Univ. Apllied Sciences Mittweida, Germany), Frank-Michael Schleif (Univ. Leipzig, Germany), Barbara Hammer (Clausthal Univ. Of Tech., Germany) 2. Computational Intelligence in Biomedicine Paulo J.G. Lisboa (Liverpool John Moores Univ., U.K.), Alfredo Vellido (Tech. Univ. Catalonia, Spain), Jos? D. Mart?n (Univ. Valencia, Spain) 3. Machine learning techniques based on random projections Benjamin Schrauwen (Ghent Univ., Belgium), Amaury Lendasse (Helsinki Univ. of Tech., Finland), Yoan Miche (I.N.P. Grenoble, France) 4. Information Visualization, Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction, Manifold and Topological Learning Axel Wism?ller (Univ. Rochester, New York, USA), Michel Verleysen (Univ. cat. Louvain, Belgium), Michael Aupetit (CEA, France), John Aldo Lee (Univ. cat. Louvain, Belgium) 5. Computational Intelligence Business Applications Thiago Turchetti Maia (Vetta Group, Brazil), Antonio Braga (Univ. Fed. Minas Gerais, Brazil) 6. Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning: Theory and Applications Massimo De Gregorio (Ist. Cibernetica-CNR, Italy), Priscila M. V. Lima (Univ. Fed. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Gadi Pinkas (Center for Academic Studies, Israel) Location -------- The conference will be held in Bruges (also called "Venice of the North"), one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Europe. Bruges can be reached by train from Brussels in less than one hour (frequent trains). The town of Bruges is world-wide known, and famous for its architectural style, its canals, and its pleasant atmosphere. The conference will be organized in a hotel located near the centre (walking distance) of the town. There is no obligation for the participants to stay in this hotel. Hotels of all levels of comfort and price are available in Bruges; there is a possibility to book a room in the hotel of the conference at a preferential rate through the conference secretariat. A list of other smaller hotels is also available. The conference will be held at the Novotel hotel, Katelijnestraat 65B, 8000 Brugge, Belgium. Proceedings and journal special issue ------------------------------------- The proceedings will include all communications presented to the conference (tutorials, oral and posters), and will be available on-site. Extended versions of selected papers will be published in the Neurocomputing journal (Elsevier). Call for contributions ---------------------- Prospective authors are invited to submit their contributions before November 25, 2009. The electronic submission procedure is described on the ESANN portal http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann/. Authors must also commit themselves that they will register to the conference and present the paper in case of acceptation of their submission (one paper per registrant). Authors of accepted papers will have to register before February 28, 2010; they will benefit from the advance registration fee. The ESANN conference applies a strict policy about the presentation of accepted papers during the conference: authors of accepted papers who do not show up at the conference will be blacklisted for future ESANN conferences, and the lists will be communicated to other conference organizers. Deadlines --------- Submission of papers 2 December 2009 (extended deadline) Notification of acceptance 18 January 2010 ESANN conference 28-30 April 2010 Conference secretariat ---------------------- ESANN'2010 d-side conference services phone: + 32 2 730 06 11 24 av. L. Mommaerts Fax: + 32 2 730 06 00 B - 1140 Evere (Belgium) E-mail: esann at dice.ucl.ac.be http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann Steering and local committee (to be confirmed) ---------------------------- Fran?ois Blayo Ipseite (CH) Gianluca Bontempi Univ. Libre Bruxelles (B) Marie Cottrell Univ. Paris I (F) Jeanny H?rault INPG Grenoble (F) Mia Loccufier Univ. Gent (B) Bernard Manderick Vrije Univ. Brussel (B) Jean-Pierre Peters FUNDP Namur (B) Joos Vandewalle KUL Leuven (B) Michel Verleysen UCL Louvain-la-Neuve (B) Louis Wehenkel Univ. Li?ge (B) Scientific committee (to be confirmed) -------------------- Fabio Aiolli Univ. degli Studi di Padov (I) Cecilio Angulo Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Miguel Atencia Univ. Malaga (E) Michael Biehl University of Groningen (NL) Martin Bogdan Univ. T?bingen (D) Luc Boullart Ghent University (B) Herv? Bourlard IDIAP Martigny (CH) Antonio Braga Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) Joan Cabestany Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Colin Campbell Bristol University (UK) St?phane Canu Inst. Nat. Sciences App. (F) Valentina Colla Scuola Sup. Sant'Anna Pisa (I) Nigel Crook Oxford University (UK) Holk Cruse Universit?t Bielefeld (D) Tijl De Bie University of Bristol (UK) Massimo De Gregorio Istituto di Cibernetica-CNR (I) Dante Del Corso Politecnico di Torino (I) Wlodek Duch Nicholas Copernicus Univ. (PL) Marc Duranton NXP Semiconductors (USA) Richard Duro Univ. Coruna (E) Andr? Elisseef IBM Research (CH) Deniz Erdogmus Oregon Health & Science University (USA) Anibal Figueiras-Vidal Univ. Carlos III Madrid (E) Jean-Claude Fort Universit? Paul Sabatier Toulouse (F) Felipe M. G. Fran?a Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Leonardo Franco Univ. Malaga (E) Damien Fran?ois Universit? catholique de Louvain (B) Colin Fyfe Univ. Paisley (UK) Stan Gielen Univ. of Nijmegen (NL) Marco Gori Univ. Siena (I) Bernard Gosselin Fac. Polytech. Mons (B) Manuel Grana UPV San Sebastian (E) Anne Gu?rin-Dugu? IMAG Grenoble (F) Barbara Hammer Clausthal Univ. of Technology (D) Martin Hasler EPFL Lausanne (CH) Verena Heidrich-Meisner Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (D) Tom Heskes Univ. Nijmegen (NL) Katerina Hlavackova-Schindler Austrian Acad. of Sciences (A) Christian Igel Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (D) Jose Jerez Univ. Malaga (E) Gonzalo Joya Univ. Malaga (E) Christian Jutten INPG Grenoble (F) Juha Karhunen Helsinki Univ. of Technology (FIN) Samuel Kaski Helsinki Univ. Tech. (FIN) Stefanos Kollias National Tech. Univ. Athens (GR) Jouko Lampinen Helsinki Univ. of Tech. (FIN) Petr Lansky Acad. of Science of the Czech Rep. (CZ) Priscila M. V. Lima Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Paulo Lisboa Liverpool John Moores University (UK) Erzsebet Merenyi Rice Univ. (USA) David Meunier University of Cambridge (UK) Anke Meyer-B?se Florida State university (USA) Jean-Pierre Nadal Ecole Normale Sup?rieure Paris (F) Erkki Oja Helsinki Univ. of Technology (FIN) Tjeerd olde Scheper Oxford Brookes University (UK) Georges Otte Dr. Guislain Institute (B) Gilles Pag?s Univ. Paris 6 (F) Thomas Parisini Univ. Trieste (I) H?l?ne Paugam-Moisy Universit? Lumi?re Lyon 2 (F) Kristiaan Pelckmans K. U. Leuven (B) Alberto Prieto Universitad de Granada (E) Didier Puzenat Univ. Antilles-Guyane (F) Leonardo Reyneri Politecnico di Torino (I) Jean-Pierre Rospars INRA Versailles (F) Fabrice Rossi Telecom ParisTech (F) David Saad Aston Univ. (UK) Francisco Sandoval Univ.Malaga (E) Jose Santos Reyes Univ. Coruna (E) Craig Saunders Univ.Southampton (UK) Frank-Michael Schleif Univ. Leipzig (Germany) Benjamin Schrauwen Univ. Gent (B) Udo Seiffert Fraunhofer-Institute IFF Magdeburg (D) Bernard Sendhoff Honda Research Institute Europe (D) Alessandro Sperduti Universit? degli Studi di Padova (I) Jochen Steil Univ. Bielefeld (D) John Stonham Brunel University (UK) Johan Suykens K. U. Leuven (B) John Taylor King?s College London (UK) Peter Tino University of Birmingham (UK) Claude Touzet Univ. Provence (F) Thiago Turchetti Maia Fed.Univ.Minas Gerais (Brazil) Marc Van Hulle KUL Leuven (B) Alfredo Vellido Polytechnic University of Catalonia (E) Pablo Verdes Novartis Phrama (CH) David Verstraeten Univ. Gent (B) Thomas Villmann Univ. Apllied Sciences Mittweida (D) Heiko Wersing Honda Research Institute Europe (D) Axel Wism?ller University of Rochester, New York (USA) Bart Wyns Ghent University (B) Michalis Zervakis Technical Univ. Crete (GR) ======================================================== ESANN - European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann * For submissions of papers, reviews, registrations: Michel Verleysen Univ. Cath. de Louvain - Machine Learning Group 3, pl. du Levant - B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve - Belgium tel: +32 10 47 25 51 - fax: + 32 10 47 25 98 mailto:esann at uclouvain.be * Conference secretariat d-side conference services 24 av. L. Mommaerts - B-1140 Evere - Belgium tel: + 32 2 730 06 11 - fax: + 32 2 730 06 00 mailto:esann at uclouvain.be ======================================================== From a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk Sun Nov 22 06:54:46 2009 From: a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk (Anil Seth) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:54:46 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Two postdoctoral opportunities in Consciousness Science Message-ID: <4B092686.3020200@sussex.ac.uk> Two full-time post-doctoral positions are available within the new multidisciplinary Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science (SCCS) at Sussex University, starting early 2010 and lasting for three years. The deadlines are Dec 10 (1st position, extended from Nov 30) and Dec 11 (2nd position). Successful candidates will work on developing and testing cognitive/computational neuroscience accounts of neural mechanisms underlying consciousness, in health and in disease. One position will focus on basic science, another will have a more clinical focus. Both positions will involve a mix of cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling, and functional brain imaging. Each post comes with a broad remit with opportunities to follow your own research interests within the area of cognitive/computational neuroscience relevant to consciousness. Successful candidates will work with Dr. Anil Seth and Prof. Hugo Critchley (SCCS directors) and other researchers in the group. For more information, please see http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAF848/ and http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AAH409. -- Anil Seth, D.Phil. Reader, EPSRC Leadership Fellow, Dept of Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK W: www.anilseth.com, T: +44 1273 678549, From inaki.navarro at upm.es Mon Nov 23 06:00:19 2009 From: inaki.navarro at upm.es (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?I=F1aki_Navarro?=) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:00:19 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: BICS 2010 - Call for papers, workshops and tutorials Message-ID: <8cc3f3ce0911230300u46d12677p3bb1d2a62c974304@mail.gmail.com> *We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message. ============================================================================== ____ _____ _____ _____ ___ ___ __ ___ | _ \_ _/ ____|/ ____| |__ \ / _ \/_ |/ _ \ | |_) || || | | (___ ) | | | || | | | | | _ < | || | \___ \ / /| | | || | | | | | |_) || || |____ ____) | / /_| |_| || | |_| | |____/_____\_____|_____/ |____|\___/ |_|\___/ BRAIN-INSPIRED COGNITIVE SYSTEMS CONFERENCE Madrid, Spain, July 14-16, 2010 www.bicsconference.org Ricardo Sanz, General Chair Sponsored by ICSC ============================================================================== BICS 2010 is a multitrack conference organised around four strongly related symposia (NC 2010, BIS 2010, CNS 2010 and MoC 2010). The three previous BICS conferences were BICS 2008 (Sao Luis, Brasil), BICS 2006 (Lesbos, Greece) and BICS 2004 (Stirling, UK). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Symposia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sixth International ICSC Symposium on Neural Computation (NC 2010) Fifth International ICSC Symposium on Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS 2010) Fourth International ICSC Symposium on Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS 2010) Third International ICSC Symposium on Models of Consciousness (MoC 2010) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Motivation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems - BICS 2010 aims to bring together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic and synthetic methods both to understand the astonishing processing properties of biological systems and, specifically those of the living brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance engineering methods for building artificial systems with higher levels of cognitive competence. BICS 2010 is a meeting point of cognitive systems engineers and brain scientists where cross-domain ideas are fostered in the hope of getting new emerging insights on the nature, operation and extractable capabilities of brains. This multiple approach is necessary because the progressively more accurate data about brains is producing a growing need of both a quantitative and theoretical understanding and an associated capacity to manipulate this data and translate it into engineering applications rooted in sound theories. BICS 2010 is intended for both researchers that aim to build brain inspired systems with higher cognitive competences, and as well to life scientists who use and develop mathematical and engineering approaches for a better understanding of complex biological systems like the brain. BICS 2010 is organized around four major interlaced focal symposia that are organized into patterns that encourage cross-fertilization across the symposia topics. This emphasizes the role of BICS as a major meeting point for researchers and practitioners in the areas of biological and artificial cognitive systems. Debates across disciplines will enrich researchers with complementary perspectives from diverse scientific fields. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Call for Workshops and Tutorials ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Organizing Committee for BICS 2010 requests proposals for a full or half day workshop or tutorial, to be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at the Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. This day of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of basic and applied research in brain inspired cognitive systems. Workshops should be focused on interactions of participants to exchange new ideas and explore new directions in research. Tutorials should provide self-contained descriptions of established research topics. The primary criteria for selection are anticipated level of interest, impact, novelty or creativity, and technical background of presenters. We request that workshop and tutorial organizers initially email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by December 10, 2009 to the BICS Program manager at ipc at bicsconference.org. A template for the final proposal of approximately 3 pages will be mailed to all interested parties. The full proposal submission should include a title, an abstract and a description of the proposed content, a tentative schedule, and the expected requirements for space and equipment. Full proposals for review will be due by December 10, 2009. All decisions will be made by January 15, 2010. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference: July 14-16, 2010 Workshops and tutorials: July 13, 2010 Paper submission Submission of contributions: December 29, 2009 Notification of acceptance: March 10, 2010 Final contributions due: May 15, 2010 Workshops and Tutorials submission Submission of proposals: December 29, 2009 Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Publications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All accepted papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published in electronic format. Attendant authors will receive a copy of them on CD. * BICS'10 book by Springer Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of them after the conference, to be included as book chapters in the BICS'10 book to be published by Springer. * Special Issue of Cognitive Computation A post-conference Special Issue of the journal Cognitive Computation will also be published by Springer with extended versions of selected BICS'2010 papers chapters and invited contributions. * Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness A post-conference Special Issue of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness will also be published with extended versions of selected contributions to the Symposium on Models of Consciousness of BICS'10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venue ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The conference will be held at the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Industriales of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM ETSII). Address: Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2 28006 Madrid Spain Geo:lat=40.4404 lon=-3.6902 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Conference Scope ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neural Computation (NC) NeuroComputational (NC) Systems ? NC Hybrid Systems ? NC Learning ? NC Control Systems ? NC Signal Processing ? NC Architectures ? NC Devices ? NC Perception and Pattern Classifiers ? Support Vector Machines ? Fuzzy or Neuro-Fuzzy Systems ? Evolutionary Neural Networks ? Biological Neural Network Models ? NC Applications Biologically Inspired Systems (BIS) Brain Inspired (BI) Systems ? BI Vision ? BI Audition and sound processing ? BI Other sensory modalities ? BI Motion processing ? BI Robotics ? BI Adaptive and Control systems ? BI Evolutionary systems ? BI Oscillatory systems ? BI Signal processing ? BI Learning ? Neuromorphic systems Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS) CN of vision ? CN of non-vision sensory modalities ? CN of volition ? Systems Neuroscience ? Attentional Mechanisms ? Affective Systems ? Language ? Cortical Models ? Sub-Cortical Models ? Cerebellar Models ? Neural correlates Models of consciousness (MoC) World awareness ? Self-awareness ? Imagination? Qualia models ? Virtual Machine Approaches ? Formal Models of Consciousness ? Control Theoretical Models ? Developmental/Infant Models ? Will and Volition ? Emotion and Affect Philosophical implications ? Neurophysiological Grounding ? Enactive approaches ? Heterophenomenology ? Analytic/Synthetic phenomenology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Program Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jaime G?mez (Technical University of Madrid), Chair of the PC Amir Hussain (University of Stirling, UK), NC Chair Leslie Smith (University of Stirling, UK), BIS Chair Igor Aleksander (Imperial College, UK), CNS Chair Antonio Chella (University of Palermo, UK), MoC Chair David Gamez (Imperial College, London, UK) Hugo Gravato Marques (University of Essex, UK) Alexei Samsonovich (George Mason University, VA, USA) Raul Arrabales (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain) Pentti Haikonen (University of Illinois, Springfield, IL, USA) Tom Ziemke (University of Sk?vde, Sweden) David Balduzzi (University of Wisconsin, WI, USA) Riccardo Manzotti (IULM, Milan, Italy) James Albus (George Mason University, VA, USA) James Austin (Cybula Ltd, UK) Giacomo Indiveri (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Alister Hamilton (University of Edinburgh, UK) F. Claire Rind (Newcastle University, UK) Sue Denham (University of Plymouth, UK) Philip Hafliger (University of Oslo, Norway) David Windridge (University of Surrey, UK) Luis Rocha (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA) Shun-ichi Amari (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan) Jose C. Principe (University of Florida, USA) Professor Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA) Anil K Seth (University of Sussex, UK) Bernard Widrow (Stanford University, USA) Stephen Grossberg (Boston University, USA) Umamaheshwari Ramamurthy (University of Memphis, TN, USA) Hans-Heinrich Bothe (Technical University of Denmark Lyngby, Denmark) Marcilio Souto (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) Irene Macaluso (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) Will Browne (University of Reading, UK) Petros A. M. Gelepithis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizing Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ramon Gal?n, Chair of the OC Carlos Hern?ndez I?aki Navarro Manuel Rodr?guez Pascual Campoy Paloma de la Puente Adolfo Hernando Miguel Olivares Guadalupe S?nchez ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contact ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General requests: info at bicsconference.org Organization committee: oc at bicsconference.org Program committee: pc at bicsconference.org Conference website: www.bicsconference.org Conference mailist: http://lists.aslab.upm.es/mailman/listinfo/bics ============================================================================== From eero at cns.nyu.edu Tue Nov 24 22:53:13 2009 From: eero at cns.nyu.edu (Eero Simoncelli) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:53:13 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Doctoral studies in Vision at NYU References: Message-ID: <1C09F7E5-AC06-44D0-9CBB-4F4F280616C2@cns.nyu.edu> New York University is home to a thriving interdisciplinary community of researchers in the visual sciences, spanning multiple departments. A listing of faculty, sorted by their primary departmental affiliation, is given below. Doctoral programs are flexible, allowing students to pursue research across departmental boundaries. Nevertheless, admissions are handled separately by each department, and students interested in pursuing graduate studies should submit an application to the program that best fits their goals and interests. Application deadlines vary per department, as indicated below. ** Center for Neural Science (CNS) (Deadline: 12 December) [http://www.cns.nyu.edu/doctoral/] [Neuroscience throughout NYU: http://neuroscience.nyu.edu] * Michael Hawken (also in Psychology) - Neuronal mechanisms of visual perception. * Lynne Kiorpes (also in Psychology) - Development of visual function. * Tony Movshon (also in Psychology) - Vision and visual development. * Bijan Pesaran - Neuronal dynamics, visuo-motor control, and decision making. * John Rinzel (also in Mathematics) - Biophysical mechanisms and theory of neural computation. * Nava Rubin (also in Psychology) - Visual perception and the neural basis of vision. * Robert Shapley (also in Psychology and Biology) - Visual physiology and perception. * Eero Simoncelli (also in Mathematics and Psychology) - Computational vision. ** Psychology, Cognition & Perception program (Deadline: 12 December) [http://www.psych.nyu.edu/programs/cp/] * Marisa Carrasco (also in CNS) - Visual perception and attention. * David Heeger (also in CNS) - fMRI, computational neuroscience, vision, attention. * Michael Landy (also in CNS) - Computational approaches to vision. * Laurence Maloney (also in CNS) - Mathematical approaches to psychology and neuroscience. * Denis Pelli (also in CNS) - Object recognition. ** Computer Science (Deadline: 4 January) [http://www.cs.nyu.edu/web/Research/Areas/graphicsvisionui.html] * Chris Bregler - human motion modeling, computer vision, machine learning. * Rob Fergus - computer vision, machine learning, computer graphics. * Davi Geiger (also in CNS) - Computational vision and learning. * Yann LeCun - machine learning, hierarchical visual processing, robotics. * Sam Roweis - machine learning, signal and image processing, analysis of large datasets. ** Mathematics (Recommended Deadline: 18 December ) [http://math.nyu.edu/degree/phd/] * David Cai - Nonlinear stochastic behavior in physical and biological systems. * David McLaughlin (also CNS) - Nonlinear wave equations, computational visual neuroscience. * Aaditya Rangan - computational neurobiology, numerical analysis. * Michael Shelley (also CNS) - Modeling and large-scale computation, computational visual neuroscience. ** Biology (Deadline: 12 December) [http://biology.as.nyu.edu/page/graduate.program] * Claude Desplan (also CNS) - Molecular/genetic basis for development, particularly color vision circuitry. * Daniel Tranchina (also Mathematics and CNS) - Information processing in the retina. ** Philosophy (Deadline: 4 January) [http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/page/graduate] * Ned Block (also psychology and CNS) - Foundations of consciousness. From achler at uiuc.edu Wed Nov 25 19:54:07 2009 From: achler at uiuc.edu (Tsvi Achler) Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:54:07 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: 2010 Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Call for Demonstrations Message-ID: ------------ 2010 Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Call for Demonstrations http://agi-conf.org/2010/workshops/#AGI%20Machines --------------- The ability to look beyond what is learned and apply the learned information to new scenarios distinguishes humans and animals from AI artifacts. ?The goal of the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Community is to better understand these gaps. AGI 2010 is pleased to offer an integrative demonstration track with an opportunity to evaluate the best and most flexible AI applications. We are also pleased to extend the paper deadline to allow researchers an opportunity to combine papers with the demonstrations to represent and explain their approaches in the best light. Demonstrations should be either live computer simulations or physical demonstrations. ? Methods will be evaluated based on: (1) extent and coverage of learning compared to (2) the number of scenarios the methods are applicable. ?Discussions will follow to form a consensus on what constitutes the most promising strategies. Demonstration application forms are attached and due on Jan 15, 2010. The new paper deadline is December 1, 2009. Please join the AGI community in our quest for general intelligence. Any questions can be addressed to Tsvi Achler at achler at gmail.com ------------ 2010 Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) March 5-8, Lugano, Switzerland http://agi-conf.org/2010/ ------------- -------------- next part -------------- AGI 2010 Demonstration Form Complete and Return to achler at gmail.com by January 15 First Name Last Name Email Phone Institution or Company Position Education Briefly describe the demonstration. What is the system? What will the audience see? Describe the system's relevance to the AGI community. How much computational resources are required? Notes, Comments or Suggestions Evaluating General Intelligence The goal of the following experimental section is to quantify general intelligence applicability based on: the extent and coverage of learning-setup compared to the number of untrained or novel scenarios the method is applicable. Some systems may encompass machine learning methods while others employ ontology rules. Others may follow completely different paradigms. Please answer the questions as best applicable. Required resources for the system (estimate of degrees of freedom). How many training examples, variable parameters, or ontology rules were required to implement this system? What (and how many) scenarios can the demonstration capture without retraining or rewriting new rules, adjusting parameters and so on? Questions? Email achler at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form.docx Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document Size: 22229 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091125/9910970e/AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form-0001.bin -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33792 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091125/9910970e/AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form-0001.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 70909 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091125/9910970e/AGI-2010-Call-For-Demonstrations-Form-0001.pdf From jeedward at yahoo.com Thu Nov 26 09:52:29 2009 From: jeedward at yahoo.com (John Edward) Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:52:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: Connectionists: Workshop on computational neuroscience Message-ID: <833323.77687.qm@web45905.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Workshop on computational neuroscience ? There is a special workshop on computational neuroscience at the 2010 multi-conference (MULTICONF-10) (website: http://www.promoteresearch.org) that will be held during July 12-14, 2010 in Orlando, Florida, USA. This workshop focuses on all areas of computational neuroscience and neuroinformatics. We invite draft paper submissions. The subject line of the submission email should be ?special workshop on computational neuroscience? ? The primary goal of MULTICONF is to promote research and developmental activities in computer science, information technology, control engineering, and related fields. Another goal is to promote the dissemination of research to a multidisciplinary audience and to facilitate communication among researchers, developers, practitioners in different fields.The following conferences are planned to be organized as part of MULTICONF-10. ? * International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-10) * ?International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-10) * International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-10) * International Conference on Computer Networks (CN-10) * International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-10) * International Conference on High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS-10) * International Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ISP-10) * International Conference on Image and Video Processing and Computer Vision (IVPCV-10) * International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-10) * International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-10) ? We invite draft paper submissions. Please see the website http://www.promoteresearch.org for more details. ? Sincerely John Edward Publicity committee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091126/6a47a09a/attachment.html From alex.loebel at gmail.com Tue Nov 24 10:37:30 2009 From: alex.loebel at gmail.com (Alex Loebel) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:37:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Article about multi-quantal release at neo-cortical synapses Message-ID: <6279f5080911240737w7f7eae72n60e32f5ead6e9af0@mail.gmail.com> Dear Colleagues, I am very pleased to draw your attention to the following article: Multiquantal release underlies the distribution of synaptic efficacies in the neocortex, by Alex Loebel, Gilad Silberberg, Daniela Helbig, Henry Markram, Misha Tsodyks and Magnus Richardson. You may view and download the paper from here (abstract is below): http://www.frontiersin.org/computationalneuroscience/paper/10.3389/neuro.10/027.2009/ I will highly appreciate your comments and ideas regarding the results we present in the paper. All the best, Alex -- Alex Loebel, PhD Neurobiology Department Ludwig-Maxmilians-University Munich, Germany Tel: +49 89 2180 74820 Fax: +49 89 2180 74803 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091124/4e529857/attachment-0001.html From murphyk at cs.ubc.ca Thu Nov 26 22:55:58 2009 From: murphyk at cs.ubc.ca (Kevin Murphy) Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:55:58 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: postdoc in learning/vision at UBC Message-ID: CIFAR?s Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception Program is seeking an exceptional postdoctoral researcher to fill a two-year Junior Fellow position to begin in the summer or fall of 2010. The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a catalyst for discovery, incubating ideas that revolutionize the international research community. The Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception (NCAP) Program has two main goals: to make major advances in understanding how the brain processes information (or learns) and to find out how to translate that understanding into the development of better artificial visual systems. The program is approaching these challenges through the study of vision, and more specifically, the ability to recognize and make distinctions among three-dimensional objects. The Junior Fellow will be based at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, and will work with one or more of the following NCAP members: Kevin Murphy, Nando de Freitas and David Lowe. The starting date is flexible, but is expected to be sometime between June and September 2010. The precise topics of research are still to be determined, but will be related to using unsupervised, semi-supervised and ?deep learning? to solve interesting vision problems, such as generic object detection and localization, image segmentation and labeling, video parsing, feature discovery, active vision, etc. The ideal candidate will have a strong research track record in learning and vision, and an interest in neuroscience, as well as excellent communication skills, and a strong potential to collaborate with other NCAP program members. He or she will also be interested in exploring the contributions of research to society in collaboration with peers from other CIFAR programs. During his or her tenure, the Junior Fellow will be integrated as a member of the NCAP Program and will be expected to fully participate in NCAP meetings (usually two to three per year, typically in Vancouver or Toronto). He or she will also participate in CIFAR?s elite Junior Fellow Academy, interacting with peers in the Institute?s eleven other programs. The Academy?s purpose is to develop a community of broad thinking young scholars who are open to interdisciplinary collaboration, outstanding in their quality of research, and poised for future leadership roles. Interested candidates may apply by email to Dr. Kevin Murphy: murphyk at cs.ubc.ca. Applications must include a two-page research statement and a recent CV. Applicants should also arrange for three or four letters of reference to be sent to the same address (at least three must not be from CIFAR members). To receive full consideration, applications and letters must be received by January 15, 2010. This is a FIRM DEADLINE. Feel free to talk to Kevin Murphy or Nando de Freitas at the upcoming NIPS meeting if you have any questions. Kevin From ajyu at ucsd.edu Sat Nov 28 22:03:11 2009 From: ajyu at ucsd.edu (Angela Yu) Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:03:11 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: PhD studies in Computational Neuroscience in Dr. Yu's Lab at UCSD Message-ID: <62F372AB-FAFA-48C2-8F16-2E77BC66AB64@ucsd.edu> Applications are invited for doctoral study in the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, led by Dr. Angela Yu, at University of California, San Diego. Prospective students can apply either through the PhD program in the Cognitive Science Department (http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/graduate-study/pros_grads/ ) or the inter-departmental Neuroscience PhD Program (http://neurograd.ucsd.edu/admissions/index.html ). Deadline is December 1, 2009 for both programs. Current research of Dr. Yu's lab currently uses a combination of theoretical and empirical tools to understand the basic principles underlying the inter-related problems of sequential decision-making, adaptation, sensori-motor integration, selective attention, visual search, and active sensory processing. Candidates should have a strong mathematical background and programming experienc. Depending on the candidates' interest and ability, the student will also design and conduct human behavioral experiments involving some combination of psychophysics and eye experiments, as well as the opportunity to conduct animal experiments in collaboration with other labs at UCSD. Dr. Yu's lab is situated within the Natural Computation Lab in the Cognitive Science department of UCSD. It is affiliated with the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center and the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program. It provides ample opportunities for communication and collaboration with related labs not only within the department of Cognitive Science, but also in Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Electric and Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Institute for Neural Computation, and the Salk Institute. --------------------------------------------------------- Angela J. Yu Assistant Professor Department of Cognitive Science UCSD, Mail Code 0515 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-0515 Email: ajyu at cogsci.ucsd.edu Phone: 858-822-3317 Fax: 858-534-1128 Website: www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~ajyu --------------------------------------------------------- From shimon.whiteson at gmail.com Mon Nov 30 06:41:39 2009 From: shimon.whiteson at gmail.com (Shimon Whiteson) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:41:39 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP: Machine Learning Journal Special Issue: Empirical Evaluations in Reinforcement Learning Message-ID: <1F5A1C0D-E89C-47C6-97DC-012A0DCA0F7E@gmail.com> Call For Papers: Machine Learning Journal Special Issue Empirical Evaluations in Reinforcement Learning Submission Deadline: February 26, 2010 Guest Editors: Shimon Whiteson and Michael Littman The continuing development of a field requires a healthy exchange between theoretical advances and experimental observations. The purpose of this special issue is to assess progress in empirical evaluations of reinforcement-learning algorithms and to encourage the adoption of effective experimental methodologies. The last several years have seen new trends in uniform software interfaces between environments and learning algorithms, community comparisons and competitions, and an increased interest in experimenting with reinforcement learning in embedded systems. We enthusiastically solicit papers on relevant topics such as: * The design and dissemination of standardized frameworks and repositories for algorithms, methods, and/or results. * Experience of organizers and participants in reinforcement-learning competitions and bake-offs. * Novel evaluation methodologies or metrics. * Careful empirical comparisons of existing methods. * Novel methods validated with strong empirical results on existing benchmarks, especially those used in recent RL Competitions (see http://www.rl-competition.org/) . * Applications of reinforcement-learning approaches to real-life environments such as computer networks, system management and robotics. * Theoretical work such as sample complexity bounds that can be used to guide the design of benchmarks and evaluations. The emphasis of the special issue is not on the development of novel algorithms. Instead, papers will be assessed in terms of the insights they provide about how best to assess performance in reinforcement learning, i.e., the "meta" problem of evaluating the evaluation methodologies themselves. In particular, papers presenting empirical results should also discuss what those results reveal about the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation methodology. Similarly, papers describing real-life applications should make clear what limitations the application exposes in 'off-the-shelf' methods, how the employed method had to be modified to address real-world complications, and what the results show that could not be learned from experiments in 'toy' domains. Papers proposing new evaluation methodologies should include illustrative empirical results offering insights that would be difficult to obtain with conventional methodologies. Finally, papers proposing new evaluation methodologies should also compare and contrast with methodologies in related areas, e.g. supervised learning, explaining why such methodologies are not adequate and what ideas, if any, can be borrowed from them. For more details see: http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/CFP_10994_2009826.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-791198-p35726603 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091130/7419ebaa/attachment-0001.html From akira at bstu.by Mon Nov 30 22:16:54 2009 From: akira at bstu.by (Akira Imada) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 05:16:54 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder of ICNNAI-2010 to be held next June in Belarus Message-ID: <002701ca7234$bbf59460$0d0210ac@best> Dear Connectionist, This is a reminder of the International Conference on Neural Network and Artificial Intelligence (ICNNAI-2010) to be held in Brest, Belarus, from the 1st to 4th of June, 2010. We have already confirmed from the following four world top-class influential key-note guests. - Shun-ich Amari (Riken, Japan) - Steven Bressler (Florida Atlantic University, US) - Joaquin Sitte (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) - Xin Yao (University of Birmingham, UK) Important Dates - 1 March 2010 ... Submission due - 28 March 2010 ... Notification of Acceptance - 1 May 2010 ... Camera-ready due: Belarus is a land of fairly well-kept secret. In this lovely wonder land, with luck, you'll find something that could not be discovered elsewhere. All the latest information for the conference is available by visiting at: http://icnnai.bstu.by/icnnai-2010.html. Vladimir Golovko and Akira Imada (iccnai-2010 at brest-state-tech-univ.org) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20091130/da37e806/attachment.html